I just finished reading the latest chapter of Martial Arts Master and so far the novel is amazing. It's not pure action by any means, and that's what made it special. There's a time for super sweet romance and then there's ass kicking action scenes. The romance is on par with romance focused novels, like, it's actually super good. And then there's my craving, never before have I read a novel like that where there's a balance between the male protagonist and female lead romance and action scene to fight to the top. I want something like that, I desire it. So please give me recommendations? Also, please let it be a male protagonist. I can't really connect with a female protagonist that well, I mean it. Ps:For people that never read the novel...Please do, it's criminally underrated on NU with people giving it very unfair 1 star though reasonable since the slow start is there.
Pfft! Hahahaha! Sorry sorry, I thought that almost all the people in the internet would know what [the goat] means. Never did I expect someone to take it literal.
I highly recommend Mushoku Tensei as it has a pretty similar level of action and romance and is crazy underated for how well it is written. It is important, however, to keep in mind that it is a harem. Granted it is the best written harem of any novel in the sense that he basically loves all of them equally, none of them are dropped from the narrative, and all of them have good character and romantic development. Specifically, out of every single harem novel I have read so far, I would indubitably say it is the one that got the formula of right just because every single character can basically stand out on their own. On a similar note, Hidden Assassin, is also a serious romantic harem like Mushoku Tensei but is written like the stereotypical, modern Chinese reincarnation novel, because that is exactly what it is. The "fluffy" romance level though is significantly less than Martial Arts Master, though. In completely different genre, Akuyaku Reijo Ni Koi Wo Shite also has a lot of good romance with an intelligent protagonist (although there is a decent amount of time before the ML and FL get together), and is pretty debatably the best-written reincarnation novel where the protag is reincarnated into a otome game. Also Douluo Dalu has pretty decent romantic/character development especially considering it is a super-long xianxia type novel, although the fluffy, romantic scenes are far less than the level of Martial Arts Master.
Oh +1 My preference when it comes to nonBL novels aren't as action packed, or thrilling as others. What I prefer usually goes along the line of laid-back plot with the occasional comedy and intense actions scenes, something that I can pause and continue but at times stick through until the arc ends, and having subtle romance when there is romance. What fits my preference recently would be MMORPG: Martial Gamer. Give it a try if you feel like reading some laidback ones, but I'll remind you that it picks up about 100+ chapters in. I'm not sure how far the translation progress, as I read it with MTL. I'm close to a thousand chapters in.