I've never been that into straight-up romance, because... well, more than Pretentious Refusal to Read Things Lacking In Literary Merit, it was that the library of my childhood only had the ones with the UTTERLY RIDICULOUS (and awesome! so awesome!) covers, from like, the 70s and the 80s (god, so amazing, with glistening hairless chests and long windswept hair) and ... that turned me off. And I went to the High Fantasy and Space Opera place instead.

And okay, Heinlein is a literary genius, but lets face it - most Fantasy and SciFi is about on par with Romance, in terms of Pretentious Literary Merit. Somehow, though - childhood training, most likely - I find that I am more accepting of the tropes belonging to SF/F than to Romance. Part of it might have to do with my dislike of strong power imbalances between lovers, it's ... a mild to moderate squick.

I did meet a guy once who posed for covers of romance novels. I took a class on broadsword stage fighting when I was sixteen. (God, he was so pretty. His mother was there, and she had copies of his covers, it was so adorable. Also, goddamn, his hair was fucking fantastic, long and curly and jesus I wanted his hair even more than i wanted to dream about doing unspeakable things to him and then blush a lot because: sixteen.)