a good plotline and a good love story?
Kind of like the one found in The Belgariad. I find that its hard to pay attention to a story if it is lacking either aspect. I read the first part of The Riftwar Saga but was so turned off, i didn’t bother reading the last two books.
Any suggestions?
Martin’s Ice and Fire series has a good plot and for a love story, there’s Sansa and … no. Maybe Jon and … hmm, no.
Well, not so much love in that one but quite a few thwarted romances.
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon. Fantasy time travel set in Scotland with a FABULOUS love story.
Last Herald Mage - Mercedes Lackey (trilogy Magic’s Pawn, Magic’s Promise, Magic’s Price) - protagonist is gay and is usually unlucky in love, but it still has wonderful parts
Dragon Prince - Melanie Rawn - great love stories, but the happy marriages of all the heroes gets a bit tedious. still loved the book
I loved the last two books of the Riftwar saga.
Dragon Prince is also a trilogy, with a sequel trilogy (Dragon Star after. And it is excellent. Lots of magic, twisty medieval politics, and many very good (and a few not good at all, for anyone concerned) relationships. Be careful, though, because she often pulls a Mercedes Lackey and does vile (though never gratuitous) things to her heroes.
I also heartily second Last Herald-Mage. There aren’t many good mass-market fiction books with gay protagonists. This series is definitely one.
You might try the Tales of the Einarinn by Juliet McKenna. Four novels out so far (The Thief’s Gamble, The Swordsman’s Oath, The Gambler’s Fortune and The Warrior’s Bond) with number five due in November.
One romantic couple from Book One onwards, and possibly another couple developing in Book Four.
Dragon Prince is fine if you like sweeping romances of unrealistic proportions, where everyone has red hair and cornflower blue eyes, and they are all royalty with hardly a peasant even mentioned. And it spends pages describing clothing and jewellery, precious little on describing environment.
Soppy twaddle.
There’s a romance of sorts in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, but after book three the series gets very annoying.
I am reading a comic series called Thieves and Kings, and it’s one of the best fantasy tales I have ever read. But probably not what you’re looking for.
Just 'cos I’m re-reading some of them… I have to suggest David Gemmel.
Most of the Drenai “series” is particularly readable, (I just enjoyed “Winter Warriors”, though if by chance you haven’t read any Gemmel before “Legend” is the right starting place), and though light perhaps on the love story aspect, one couldn’t really argue that a protagonist who’d walk across half the world to rescue his abducted wife is lacking in romance. 
Two D&D series.
Beyond the High Road and Death of the Dragon by Troy Denning and Ed Greenwood. Very interesting story, and much of the plot is driven by the relationship between Tanalasta and her husband (and King Azoun and Queen Filfaeril, too).
Starlight and Shadows, by Ellain Cunningham. Although the love story is a little complicated (for the characters, not the readers - you’ll see why).
Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey.
Never in my life have I literally broke down in tears while reading a book. She is the best writer in the entire world. (No, she really is) It’s a shame that her writing style hasn’t kept up with the same intensity as the Herald Mage series, but you really need to check this book out.
I think I am about to reread the story myself.
Peace,
Shay’a’chern Brian
The Prophecy Machine and it’s sequel The Treachery of Kings by Neil Barrett, Jr. This author understands that if you want boring old relationships between two human beings, you can turn to any genre. Fantasy allows the introduction of inter-species couplings. Fynn of Fyxedia is a human clockmaker who gets sent on a variety of annoying missions by an insane king. Letitia Louise is a Newlie, a magical creature fromed by combining a human with a mouse. In practice, this means that she has human shape, but has fur, whiskers, and a tail. Very humorous book, comparable to Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
Well, there is a very emptional wedding scene in book 3.
That aside, most of the best fantasy writers - Martin, Kay, Donaldson, Zelazny, Pratchett - don’t really do “romances” per se; they write about realtionships, which are much more interesting. I’d rather read about grownups having sex than starry-eyed teenagers exchanging starry-eyed saliva.
That aside, I’d recommend Stephen Donaldson’s Mordent’s Need series - The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through It, which, atypically for him, actually contains a pure-hearted romance between the two main characters. Said characters are, of course, extremely fucked-up emotionally, but hey, that’s Donaldson. We wouldn’t expect anything less.
On further reflection, Dragonlance Legends(? the one with a young Crysania and an alcoholic Caramon) has a series-spanning “romance,” of a sort.
Of course, it being between the major baddie and the heroine (and somewhat mutual (and mutually inconvenient)) makes it less than conventional.
Alessan, I don’t know…there’s a major (and multiple-incarnation-spanning) three-point romance in Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry that has a huge part in the eventual outcome of the plot.
And in Tigana, I’d say that the undying love of the exiled subjects and royals of the titular kingdom and that land definitely qualifies as romance, unconventional as it may be.
Admittedly, none of the stories I’ve mentioned in my last two posts contains a romance in the hearts-and-flowers Harlequin sense, but in spirit, yes.
Don’t forget Cersei and… ahem. And Daenerys and… well…
Thwarted hell, the relationships in this series are just plain jacked up. But the story is awesome. And I don’t mean that in the “duuude, that’s like totally awesome” stoner sense.
I agree with you whole-heartedly, especially about Tigana (my favorite book, BTW, which should be obvious)… but hearts-and-flowers seem to be what the OP was looking for.
Can I mention John Norman? 
No!!
I’ve been reading the Liveship series by Robin Hobb. It’s a wonderful story, and there’s a good relationship that develops between two main characters.
I don’t read stuff for romance (no offense to those who do, it’s just not my thing), so I’m probably not a good recommender though.
I’m not much of a fantasy or romance reader but I did enjoy The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s a single novel rather than a series, but it does have a good plot and love story.
You could try the trilogy Raymond E. Feist did with Janny Wurts as kinda part of the Riftwar Saga (Daughter, Servant and Mistress of the Empire respectively IIRC. It’s based in the society on the other side of the Rift, and not bad. Fairly self-contained too, you don’t actually have to have read any the rest of the Saga.
And though I’m saving Curse of Chalion for the summer you could look at the Spirit Ring, also by Bujold. Quite short, but fun.
For that matter, almost any books out the the Riftwar Saga] would work-- there’s a whole lotta romance in those, and almost all of it is worth reading. I liked the initial books best: Magician: Apprentice, and Magician: Master, but the Serpentwar Saga was very good, as well.