I really liked Story of Yanxi Palace too. But it definitely doesn't really fit "lot of romance." The focus is more on the heroine, and she's great. It's like a full scale Bechdel test really, with a bit of a romance. The focus on the heroine is not at all love, or romance, but revenge and her love of her sister and pseudo sister. She's so loyal and smart in her defensive of them. Loved that! Want more heroines whose focus isn't on romance so much.
But I might also add that I loved the chemistry between the FL and ML in the scenes that they had together. He is sooo smitten and she is so cute, let's her guard down a bit with him.