Beyond happily ever after
A typical way to handle romantic storylines is to make the couple's getting together the goal, and the obstacles throughout the story are designed to frustrate that goal. When the couple gets together, the story's over. Many fairy tales work this way, complete with the line, "And they lived happily ever after."
But real-life romances don't work that way. And it can be nice to find stories where characters discover that just getting together doesn't magically solve all their problems, where they work through the issues of couplehood. This is more often seen as a storyline for adult books rather than YA, and certainly adults are more likely to be dealing with long-term romances.
However, romances in the teen years are no less real and no less emotional. During these years, people are learning how to be in relationships, how to balance their own needs and the other person's, how much common ground is enough to sustain a relationship, what the deal-breakers are, etc. And there's plenty of story material in all of that.
But real-life romances don't work that way. And it can be nice to find stories where characters discover that just getting together doesn't magically solve all their problems, where they work through the issues of couplehood. This is more often seen as a storyline for adult books rather than YA, and certainly adults are more likely to be dealing with long-term romances.
However, romances in the teen years are no less real and no less emotional. During these years, people are learning how to be in relationships, how to balance their own needs and the other person's, how much common ground is enough to sustain a relationship, what the deal-breakers are, etc. And there's plenty of story material in all of that.
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