Huh. My housemate, who introduced me to the show, agrees with you, but I feel the opposite: Cersei actually grew on me a bit after I started reading the books, whereas she just generally makes me shudder on the show.

I mean, she makes me shudder in the books, too! But she's got her cornucopia of issues that makes her the way she is just like all the major characters do, and I feel like the books show the "why" a lot more clearly. I haven't even finished the third book yet, though, so my perspective is obviously rather limited.

Deleted and reposted to fix typos and general messiness