Important elements of a "good" romance.
This has already been touched on-"good" romance must be "true" romance.
What our culture foolishly calls "love" is actually "infatuation". It's literally a bio-chemical reaction in our bodies.
True love, what the Bible calls love, is different. Infatuation is a feeling-love is an action, and a choice.
Lewis describes it this way. There is agape-unconditional love. There is the second love-mental attachment. And finally, there is physical love (infatuation?).
In order to be valid, true forms of love, the second and third kinds must have come AFTER the first love.
So, romances based on mental/emotional attachment or physical attraction are starting off wrong-doubtless they will end wrong.
Now, on a slightly less abstracted level-my opinions.
Courtship is important. A women must be courted-that is how a romance ought to start. Courtship must always be initiated by the man, with the consent of the woman's father (when his consent is relevant-dead fathers don't really matter). Obviously, a man should never court a woman who doesn't like him in any sense-except in exceptional circumstances.
Women shouldn't lead men on in courtship...if the man is errs a bit to the assuming side, she might actually do well to make things challenging for him. Likewise, the parents should never make it easy for their children, although they should offer wisdom and encouragement. But people old enough to be courting need to learn some things by experience.
If something goes wrong, the relevant parties should always try to save the courtship, unless this would be un-Biblical.
The best "wholesome" romances vary between having a gentlemanly man, or a man who is learning to be gentlemanly and honorable but isn't very good at it yet. Likewise, they should contain either a very lady-like woman, or a woman struggling to become lady-like. In fact, redemptive stories (about people being sanctified by Christ, of course) are much better than stories about nearly perfect people.
Again, those are opinions. Some are ethical opinions, and some are opinions about good taste. I won't try to force them on you-unless I'm someday the father of a woman that you someday decide to court.
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I'm talking about stories that have obviously touched something in the hearts of the readers. E.g, Pride and Prejudice, Romeo and Juliet, Beauty and the Beast......? What is it about them that makes us connect? Do we see something from our lives reflected in them? Something we want to have in our lives? Your thoughts?
Okay! Looking forward to hear your thoughts!
). Any romance that glorifies the desires of the people involved, though, turns me off...
*has nothing else to add*
... but I guess God led me to say the right things!