I'm still in the middle of reading LOTM since I got introduced by my friend who says it's to my taste, and so far I'm really enjoying the story! The reason why she believed I would like it is not only because of the heavy lore plot, but most importantly- no romance. Specifically for stories like LOTM which concentrates more on world and character building, I always find the romantic aspect to be redundant. I feel like I read so many good stories where adding romance just leads to MC needing to save the FL for whatever plot purposes, and it ends with MC sacrificing something in return. It feels like romance just stagnants, or even completely stops MCs growth once they start prioritizing love. Of course there are exceptions, but for me personally I enjoy found-family trope most above all. Going back to my question, I heard comments from some other people who didn't want to read LOTM because there's no romance. Is romance really that important to convince people to read well-written stories? Why does there need to be romance in order for the MC to be happy? I feel like friendship is more than enough. Do you guys believe that LOTM with romance would make the story better?