Florence and Ea for the Romance pointers.
I'm reading 'Silk' because I was curious to know what a 'normal' romantic novel is like - I wasn't expecting it to be great lit; any more than I'd expect a standard SF or crime novel to be great lit, so I'm not grumbling.
I did try to read 'Possession' once, but I hated it - Byatt is one author I just don't get.
Austen, Brontes, Hardy et al are fantastic - I like a lot of the classic Victorian romances (Margaret Oliphant is a personal fave
).