The only argument I cna make for Romance not being good would be based on my very limited experience.
And I want to point somethign out about that. The people here who DO have a little experience, and not much, with Romance have probably not read books that have come recommended by people who are deeply into the better parts of the genre. I've read a few, and from what Skar said earlier, it seems directly comparable to his experience: they were ones that I found lying around and read primarily because I was bored. That sounds like a cruddy basis for choosing an experience in a new area. Would you explore classical music for the first time by finding out what recommendations afficianados and experts make and why? Or would you just grab the first CD you found as you entered the store? It doesn't seem like using a very limited experience, or even extensive experience based on similar premises (I read what was available and/or handed to me). If you don't put any thought into selecting your limited exposure, then you should probably not expect your exposure to stretch you any or be particularly good, or even representative, examples of the genre. Imagine if Piers Anthony were held as representative of the quality of Fantasy and Science Fiction *shudder*
Just my 2 bits.
However, whenever in the past I've made derogatory remarks about Romance, I've not been given good examples of ones I should try that would change my opinion. I've spoken with professional romance novelists (not best sellers like that Jackie person, but people who've sold 4 or 5 novels over the course of a half dozen years) and they've not been able to point me to any specific examples that contradict my stereotype.
And even if they did, that doesn't disprove that the genre, as a whole, is lacking quality material. There are certainly exceptions to every rule of this sort, and I would never contend that the genre is *incapable* of being writing that appeals to something deeper or stretches more, but from what I see, and what I hear from most writers and readers of romance novels (and yes, my experience of the 3 or 4 I've read in my life), the percentage of crap is higher than other genres.
Finally, despite what I've said, I think that what HoM says about his books reveals a lot more about the book than this thread or the marketing dept's decision to market it as a romance. On Second Thought seemed to me to be primarily a mystery. The romance isn't even settled until the climax has passed. There are romance elements to it, enough to say that it is in part "Romance" in genre, but I find it poor thinking to really qualify it primarily as a Romance. It sounds to me like Wake Me When It's Over is primarily a thriller, and only secondarily a romance, so I don't really regard HoM's work as a sufficient example of even showing there are really exceptions to the standard level of Romance, should such an argument be made.