https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/11/romantic-novels-that-are-not-cliched-book-clinic-by-kate-kellaway

From Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre to Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn, Kate Kellaway recommends the best books about love

Q: Can you recommend some good romantic novels that are not cliched?
Annie, 25, Birmingham

A: Kate Kellaway, Observer critic, writes:
Your question makes me think about what it is to be cliched – if only because you might argue that love is the greatest and most necessary of cliches, and if you steer too far from the heart’s core in literature, romance sometimes retreats. Or did you mean that there are obvious romantic books to mention – Gone With the Wind, Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre? You also got me thinking about Jane Eyre in particular because, in her case, it is the lack of cliche that makes for romance. Neither Jane Eyre nor Rochester is conventionally good looking, yet imperfection arrives at its own perfection (there is hope for us all). In her cunning way, Charlotte Brontë does what Mills & Boon novels are required to do: she sees that love triumphs over obstacles. But her casting (among other things) is superior. She knows about ordinary magic.