Thinking about that previous post, you're probably wondering why I dislike romance novels. There's basically two considerations here: The first is that, as a writer, I know I don't have one in me, so there goes that road to publication.
But as a reader, I have to confess that I tend not to like romance novels, or the romance aspects of novels. (It should be noted that many novels classified as romance for sales purposes are actually murder mysteries or historical novels that happen to have a lot of sex in them--keep it between two people, and it's romance. Expand the field, and it's erotica.) There are exceptions: When Mr. Rochester confessed his love to Jane Eyre, I cried. Because it was so romantic. (Yes, yes, he wasn't very nice to his first wife, but God struck him blind for that. Whaddya want, blood?) I liked Pamela quite a lot until Pamela got married and rich and smug and boring. I even bought into the longing of the romance in Little Green Men, despite being reasonably certain that the long-ee was going to kill the long-er.
But mostly, I don't like romance novels. Part of it is the fantasy aspect. While I think the criticism of Twilight is overblown, the book is certainly not the only one to package unhealthy behavior as romantic. I recently read The Hunger Games, which is a great book, but there's this teenage boy with an abusive mom who latches on to a five-year-old girl (after his father indicated to him that she was desirable) and fixates on her. All the time he's "in love" with her--which is over a decade--he never actually speaks to her until circumstances force him to do so. I don't know about you (and I don't know how this is treated in the next two books), but I don't read that and think, "How romantic!" I read that and think, "That kid's going to become a serial killer!" Then there's the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, which won its author a Nobel prize and is considered a groundbreaking historical romance: It ends when the woman finally succeeds in berating her husband/love object to death. How romantic! (Seriously, that trilogy was described as "absolutely delightful" to me by the person who recommended it, a person who not coincidentally was going through a violent divorce.)
I also am more likely to dislike romance novels written in the modern era. Look at the basic plotline of romance: Boy and girl fall in love, there are obstacles to that love, the obstacles are surmounted. In days of yore, those obstacles were most often based on class--Jane Eyre is a lowly orphan, Pamela is just a servant. In order to overcome these class barriers, those gals need to have a LOT of spunk--they have to be natural aristocrats, otherwise (especially to the audience for which they were written) they're just gold-diggers.
But nowadays, the class thing doesn't work. I was telling my sister about Pamela, and I had to explain that Mr. B. was actually a decent guy, because even though he kidnaps and terrorizes Pamela, he doesn't rape her, which in that time was what upper-class men did as a matter of course in that kind of situation. Not shockingly, she was not impressed with his character--but in the 18th century, she would have been. Morality has simply changed too much--at best, we look at the upper-class character who won't marry the maid and wonder why he's such a snob.
So instead, even with historical romances like the Lavransdatter trilogy, the barriers have to be internal, and more often than not, they are neuroses. Bella can't believe that someone as perfect as Edward would love someone like her. Kristin Lavransdatter hates her husband and wants him dead because she can't accept his (totally obvious and readily advertised) flaws. These neuroses can get really contrived, with someone running off at some key point because they have some extremely convenient irrational hang-up. I just lose patience with it--I can't root for the woman, and I can't even hope she gets what she wants, because I can't believe a new boyfriend is going to solve anything for someone who is so damaged. That's not the way life works, and I, who have no problem suspending disbelief when it comes to aliens and vampires and demons, cannot suspend my disbelief for that.