I absolutely detest the practice of discounting an entire genre as somehow lesser quality writing, simply because of the genre it is. Romance (and now erotica as well, I suppose) is probably the top genre this happens to, but SF/F have experienced their fair share of that crap as well. I stopped taking creative writing classes in college when I realized that none of the instructors would allow "genre fiction" in their fiction writing classes. I had no desire to write the Great American Novel, or Short Story as the case may be.

I have not actually read Mary Balogh, but your posts have made me add her to my "to be read" pile. I do love good historical romance. :)