Yeah, I often really find myself digging 'from the past' because it makes it so much easier for me to believe in the intensity of emotion required for the romance novel beats developing over ... the rapid time period required by the romance novel beats. It's also, I think, why tropes like 'fake dating,' 'marriage of convenience,' 'required to cohabitate,' 'trapped in an inn' etc. are so timeless (and do indeed work very well for me), because when you get a lot of forced intimacy in a short timespan it can sort of do the work of standing in for a more normal relationship development over a much longer timespan.

But all this is not to say that Paladin's Grace is not enjoyable in many ways, it super is!