How Do I Love Thee - three stories by Lurlene McDaniel

Sigh. This is "Romance for Young Readers". Lurlene McDaniel is a romance writer for teens. I bought this as another attempt for my romance seeking daughter several years ago when she was about 12. I stuck my courage to the sticking place and forged my way through all three stories. Boy, was I glad to finish! And, never subjected the poor child to the book.
Let's start with the good. There are some positive messages for teens; acceptance, commitment and decisions=consequences. The age of the characters is high school, but the characters weren't drinking, or taking illegal drugs.
Now for the rest.
As for sexuality, there is kissing, which maybe doesn't bother me as much as the "Love at First Sight" conditioning. And, the sneaking out at night to meet, which somehow seems more removed in Shakespeare than in McDaniel. Does reading Romeo and Juliet or seeing West Side Story encourage kids to sneak out to meet a lover any less than a cheaply written teen paperback? I think so.
Yet, I think my biggest complaint is the assumption that the reader doesn't deserve better dialogue, better writing.
Example: Random page
"There's no way out?"
"Not unless you're a seagull. But as soon as the tide comes back in, you float right out. Neat, huh?"
"Not as neat as you," he said. He reached for her, pulled her close, and felt the warmth of her body against his. "What do you do when you come out here?" he asked, pressing his mouth into her thick, dark hair which smelled like flowers.
"I think," she said, her voice trembling with emotion. "I think about having a regular life. I think about what I want to do with whatever time I have left to live."

See what I mean? It reads like a script from the soap opera I was in during the 80's. Even then, as a teen myself, I knew the writing was cheesy and awkward, overly dramatic and just plain unreal. Yet, there seems to still be a market-smaller to be sure- for the soap opera. Maybe this book is raising the feeder market....
"OH, Steve, how can I live without you? You are my breath, you are my blood."
"My Darling, never will you have to know. I will be by your side forever! Or, until Margery's twin sister who is my mother's long lost embryo gets out of the insane asylum and kidnaps me to create a baby so she can replace her failing kidneys..."