The Problem with Romance

I got a fair number of books for Christmas, and I've been powering through them. Most of them are in the Young Adult genre. And none of them are predominately Romance.

And one thing I've noticed about them, is the overwhelming romance in them. You can't get five pages in to the book without the main character describing the obvious love interest as 'gorgeous'.

Can I just take a moment to wonder why words like that are necessary? Most people don't read books to find out how good looking a character is. They tend to read them for the actual personality of the character. Mentioning the beautiful mysteriousness of a person's eyes may sound pretty, but does it really move the plot forward? Does it give the reader and insight to this character's personality?
No.

I wrote a post about character development here.

The only thing is does do, if the story is told in first person particularly, is make the main character sound rather shallow. If you want the reader to like the love interest and understand why the main character likes them, just like with any other character, work on their personality. Work out how this character would act in certain situations. Know the character, not the looks.

Another issue is insta-love, when your MC, or any other character for that matter, meets the love interest, and it is automatically Love At First Sight. They then go on to become an obvious couple immediately, even if it's not actually official, leaving the reader wondering why they like each other in the first place.
In real life, people don't fall for each other that easily. And neither should your characters.

I know I've hammered this point rather a lot, but a story sticks longer in your mind if you've connected with the character's personality.