I don't care for romances in CRPGs. It's one of those things I believe my characters can do without and under the constraints that are generally imposed in most narratives, it often turns to be an event lacking in plausibility. Nonetheless, it is a valid option and if done correctly can open other roleplaying options for the PC.
Unfortunately they come off as entirely inadequate in writing, pacing and overall design. They happen primarily because a character in the party has the CHARNAME tag on, and that's where I think problems start. There is no sense that the PC has done anything in particular to impress the romantic other, and if he did we can never tell.
While it's likely that romance options are often downplayed and made into an abstraction or into a simplified element like other CRPGs elements when compared to what one would find in reality, the lack of things like basic interaction between the people involved is rather blatant and for the lack of a better word, pants. It's not so much the lack of realism as pointed in the thread Baphomet linked to (although these options would be valid and curiously enough, have been implemented in Baldur's Gate 2 via a Flirt Pack Mod or somesuch by modders) but the lack of anything that suggests a relationship exists. They're time-triggered dialogue trees that count how many chances you have of scoring with FEMALE_BIMBO_NPC, and that's just what they feel like.
Romances are also very much created and carried out as if in a vacuum, as if only the PC and ROMANCE_OPTION#1 were the only members in the party capable of protagonism, romantic ideals, reactions, attraction and so on. The PC is a dumbass fighter with a 3 in Intelligence, a 4 in Wisdom, a 3 in Charisma, there's never any mention of him ever tending to his personal higyene, he has the highest bodycount in the party, never gives money to the poor, and is only adventuring for shiny loot. Why is the well informed, brazen, independent, head strong and no nonsense female druid falling for the PC? Why not for the devout and loyal Cleric, the charming and silver tongued Bard, or hell, even the opportunist but reliable Mage? Again, no CHARNAME tag.
It's also not taken into account how the PC performs in battle. Relationships are also built through actions and inactions, not only words. Split second reactions, such as getting in the way of an arrow that was poised to hit the PC's love interest, are never counted. Combat is combat and no matter how many times you save your romantic partner from certain death, they'll never thank you for it. Nor will they show any kind of concern that you're a poor leader and sent about 3 party members into a fiery deathtrap, or that you've got the blood of 2000+ enemies in your hands, or that you may have doomed an entire village, nor any such things.
They're static and uninteresting at best, poor fan fiction designed for teens masturbating and crying in the dark at worst.