Am I different? Well, yes, I think so. At least as different as we all are when we gain more knowledge, process things, etc. I still like reading non-fiction about human dynamics, but most often than not, I find myself relating it to examples from the romance novels. So, they are a very good reference!
It's a gentle mirror in a lot of instances, I have found myself going "oh man, that is/was totally me", it's an opportunity for this whole being a genius and learning from someone else's mistakes.
There's a lot of bravery, courage and doing the right thing for its own sake. Like you, I have paused reading romantic novels, for other topics, so right now I am at the point of reading them at Balogh's publishing pace, which is nice enough.
There's one struggle, which has been mentioned in the past I believe, and that is that this type of reading might make you long for a romantic partner, if you're alone, which is absolutely normal... but that is yet another concept that has been illustrated so well in some of these stories, getting over your own self pity and your waiting for life to give you the love, affection, or company, a part of you absolutely knows you deserve and are owed. You can't trick life, and an entitled spoiled attitude won't get you much, maybe contempt.
Instead, and the C's mentioned this a while back, or something along these lines, give that which you feel are lacking, to life, that way solitude isn't loneliness, silence isn't abandonment, and so on. If you give love to life in general, to your family and friends, and work, and your daily dealings, then your life isn't loveless, even if you are alone.
And it doesn't mean to be "cuddly" with everything around you, like some new age person, rather...sometimes love is tough, stern and assertive, sometimes love is saying no when you want to say yes, to others and to yourself, but it's never destructive, it's creative even if it needs to make a few illusions crumble from time to time, or create necessary friction in certain situations. Love is knowledge, truth.
A little while ago I concluded that you can indeed refuse to live a loveless life, despite the status of your romantic partnerships.
And once you get over that struggle, though I realize I overextended myself, the stories become very rich, and new ideas become visible about human interactions, which is another thing I've come to realize, most of the significant and life changing events are a human interaction, our best and worst memories they all have another human (or several) being at the other end of whatever the situation it is connecting us with.
Not sure if I have grown, per se, from this reading, I do not know how to measure that on my own, though that probably wasn't the point, I feel it was more about having the chance of witnessing someone else going through something that you may get a clue or two about yourself. And that has been touching and entertaining, I am very glad I picked up so many of these books.
