Then I have a suggestion! Cordelia's Honor which is the start of a whole sci-fi series called the Vorkosigan Saga... now, don't worry about the sci-fi, it is more like political implications and not just space battles, and the story is written by a woman. But a main driving point in the story is the romance between Cordelia and Aral Vorkosigan; and it's really kind of awesome. Cordelia is not young, neither is Aral, and they are wicked intelligent and interesting people in their own right and I was quite taken with their story.
Most of what Robin McKinley writes has good relationships that are not THE SOLE FOCUS but they are in integral part of things. Both her renditions of Beauty and the Beast are particularly interesting there (yes, she wrote two... she kind of wins my soul for that, as that is one of my hopeless romantic things).
Oh and all of those reccs are not all about sexytimes, though if they are YA they are a strong one for other themes.
Lemme think what else... on the strange side (and depending on your reading it's not romantic at all) but there's The Left Hand of Darkness which is another sci-fi, but more about a culture that doesn't have gender in the way we see it and a human interacting in it who sort of has a thing with one of the people on the planet... VERY thinky.
I lean more sci-fi than fantasy, obvs, but good sci-fi is really just exploratory on the speculative fiction aspects.
God, trying to think of other ones that kind of appealing to the romantic in me... I admit I gravitate away from a lot of that, because I am bored if it's the sole focus (hilariously, I still WRITE things like that oh brain).
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Most of what Robin McKinley writes has good relationships that are not THE SOLE FOCUS but they are in integral part of things. Both her renditions of Beauty and the Beast are particularly interesting there (yes, she wrote two... she kind of wins my soul for that, as that is one of my hopeless romantic things).
Oh and all of those reccs are not all about sexytimes, though if they are YA they are a strong one for other themes.
Lemme think what else... on the strange side (and depending on your reading it's not romantic at all) but there's The Left Hand of Darkness which is another sci-fi, but more about a culture that doesn't have gender in the way we see it and a human interacting in it who sort of has a thing with one of the people on the planet... VERY thinky.
I lean more sci-fi than fantasy, obvs, but good sci-fi is really just exploratory on the speculative fiction aspects.
God, trying to think of other ones that kind of appealing to the romantic in me... I admit I gravitate away from a lot of that, because I am bored if it's the sole focus (hilariously, I still WRITE things like that oh brain).