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Morganncall wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 14:33 There are some great couples in this book from three different time periods Fioretta Gorini and Giuliano de Medici, Sophia Caro and the German officer Gerhard Jaeger, and Angela Renatus and Alex Caine. Each have their own story and their own kind of love, but are their stories that different? is romance different in 2018 than it was in the other time periods? if yes, how, and do you think that it's a bad thing that it is different?

Dael Reader wrote: ↑21 Jun 2018, 19:54 Frankly, I didn't think any of the couples in this book were in the midst of romance. Most of what we see of them has more to do with lust. Romance involves time spent together, talking, laughing, learning more about each other. All we really see about the couples here are their insatiable desire for sex.

kfwilson6 wrote: ↑21 Jun 2018, 11:55 I think that within this book, each couple treated romance in a very similar way. Each couple was together truly for love. Even though in modern society, in the US and Italy at least, people have 100% authority in choosing who they wish to marry (even so far as to allow same-sex marriages in certain states). In previous centuries, marriages were very contractual. Couples were matched up to benefit the families and to ensure that no one "married down."
Romance was almost forbidden in certain times and in certain cultures. Now romance is something that people strive to have. True love is so strongly sought after. Most people in the US today do not make marriages for some benefit to their finances, statuses, etc.
It's a great thing that people can choose who to spend their life with. It also helps merge people of different social classes. Although it's more likely that someone will marry within their same economic group (middle class will marry middle class) this is no rule that is set in stone. Ever seen Maid in Manhattan?

kfwilson6 wrote: ↑22 Jun 2018, 08:46

Dael Reader wrote: ↑21 Jun 2018, 19:54 Frankly, I didn't think any of the couples in this book were in the midst of romance. Most of what we see of them has more to do with lust. Romance involves time spent together, talking, laughing, learning more about each other. All we really see about the couples here are their insatiable desire for sex.

Matches up well with modern society though doesn't it
Some people in every time period want a true love story and some of them just want a physical relationship. And, the book actually mimics reality in it's claim to be romance when it's really not that much about relationship building. This also happens in real-life relationships. One person thinks it's all about having a good time and the other thinks it's about building a future.