27 Dresses and Enchanted and Stardust( the last 2 aren't romsnces, but they have very strong romantic elements) are good about having the romance there to support the character and character growth, as opposed to saying the romance is the character growth.

My thing isn't "Why should I care about a female character who's just a love interest?" but "Why should I care about your property at all if the girl is just the love interest? Next!"

I've always looked at it as the 2 days with Jack are when her life changed, and she never could have had those things without him.