The best stories are those that evoke a strong feeling in us whether good or bad. They disturb something inside us. The word disturbs often carries with it a bad connotation but in this case that would be false. If a stories does not move you in some way then it was merely words on a page. A good romance novel will also evoke some sort of emotional reaction as well. Granted those emotions tend to be on a lighter or more uplifting tone but it's an emotional response nonetheless.
I have found, though, that the emotion a good romance inspires can be put into one of two categories. (Feel free to disagree.) Either the story will have you remembering your own similar experience or it will having you wishing or yearning for such an experience. I believe that this can also have an effect as to which romance books you tend to gravitate too. (Which ones do I gravitate to? Well that would be like kissing and telling now wouldn't it!) For example, I would say that those who generally reach for the more innocent and simplistic romance of say a Pride and Prejudice are probably going for the remembrance of a feeling, while those who gravitate to say the Fifty Shade of Grey trilogy are more apt to be looking to vicariously live such an experience. This is not to say that one can't enjoy both. But merely, the reading experience is at opposite ends of the spectrum.
The book currently on the kindle is Love's Portrait (Historical Erotic Romance) by Monica Burns which tries to straddle the line and incorporate both a side that many would wish for while trying to maintain the simple purity of love at it's core. I'm about half way done and aside from getting annoyed at the mistakes a mediocre editor should have caught (red sheets on one page are suddenly white on another), the story is still intriguing enough to keep my attention. At this point, it has me feeling...reckless is the word that comes to mind. But we'll see, the night is still young!
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