What do you want in an excellent romance novel?

Heaving bosoms and milky white skin...just kidding. I like a romance to have actual romance in it. Real life too. Silly things and embarrassing things that make the other person adorable to the reader too. I want to root for the two to end up together but follow a relationship progression that is like my own life experiences. I think you have it there...'Classy, tasteful, intelligent with just a dash of saturnine humor and blushable sentiment.'

I agree with you 100% Jane Austen perfected the gere of Romance Novels. Her work isn't cheesy with, as mentioned above "heaving bossoms and milky skin", it is exacly just right.

In a romance book I look for class, humor, intelligence, good characters, romance (but not crude sex) something more sensual, plot twists, and a happy ending (not always the two main characters ending up together but a happy endig.

It must have all elements of the usual romance novel, handsome man, sensuality, love, conflict but you are right, if it isn't well-written with plenty of humor and class, it's not worth reading. I love Julia Quinn. She is my modern day Jane Austen! The Bridgerton series is the best series I've ever read and I own about 300 books, all romance. Plus I've written two romance novels.

1. Appealing characters. If I don't like at least one of the two main characters from chapter 1, chances are that I am not going to finish reading the book (I've read thousands of books, so I know this to be a very loud and plain fact about myself as a reader). No ball buster-type heroines, no TSTL (too stupid to live) heroines, no pushover/doormat heroes.

2. Engaging plot.

3. Good pacing and flow. I don't like "draggy" parts, I tend to lose interest when I encounter one and end up skipping i.e. Frodo's trek to Mt. Doom (though this bit is not part of a romance, but it illustrates my point well enough).

4. Author should hit the right emotional chords, but not be overly melodramatic (I often end up giggling, imagining violins playing in the background or soap-opera type ominous music)... and then proceed to skip the whole melodramatic chunk as well.

5. Happy ending or at least, book should end on an uplifting note. I read romance to escape rl, not to end up feeling like crap once I am done reading it... I have enough with dealing with tragedy and bad news irl, thank you very much.

I like Nora Roberts, well I used to read them all the time. I like that there is always conflict (though it's usually expected), romance, sex, you know, all the romantic book counterparts. There also has to be a point to the story, I hate books where there is no point to the story....

Romance

Sensuality

"The Thorn Birds"-this one even choked me up and I'm a dude.

A movie about it so I don't have to spend time that I don't have reading it.