His Until Midnight

I don't ordinarily listen to romance novels. I chose this one because the author recently won a major award, so I figured this would probably represent the best of the genre. I hope it doesn't. I'm halfway thru, but have no reason to finish it. There's nothing more I want to know. I know these people will get together, and don't care. The plot requires the two main characters to be idiots all the time and deny their love for each other in the name of friendship, in a way that no real person would do. The characters are generic and boring, they have no romance in them, the plot so far is both dumb and predictable, and I don't understand why anyone would want to read this. Romance can be so much better than this. Have today's romance authors never read Gone with the Wind, Anna Karenina, or Pride and Prejudice? Even today's science fiction authors write better romance than this. I think a key part of the general problem with romance novels is that a novel that is only about romance can never be romantic. Romance can't occur in a void. It must depend on the characters of the lovers, and their character is developed and shown in their lives outside of the romance. These characters are doing nothing outside of the "romance"; we see nothing of their everyday lives, their fears and goals. See Gone With the Wind or Anna Karenina.