The two authors who immediately spring to mind are Julie Garwood, whose characterization and humor make it a sheer joy to watch her heroes and heroines fall in love, and Amanda Quick, whose Regency-flavored suspense plays a big part in propelling the relationship between her heroes and heroines forward. Both Julie and Jayne handle their protagonists in a way that makes their discovery of each other a natural progression rather than a battle between antipathy and hormones. I couldn't imagine falling in love with someone I didn't know, didn't respect, didn't like, or didn't care to like. That personal conviction carried into my writing. I wanted to portray love rooted in more than passion alone.
Love is a lot more than that - at least the kind of love that lasts a lifetime.
So, enough about unity. On to conflict. Having read romances since I was old enough to get my hands on them, I've watched the genre grow and expand into dozens of exciting new directions. Let's begin with the time-tested fact that conflict is necessary to create a good story. Yes, that works.