I feel like issues of consent are handled far better in (good) fan fiction, probably because there' s a (mostly) shared consensus about the roles of dubious consent and non consensual sex. In fiction like romance novels, I feel like the author and I have vastly different ideas of what constitutes consensual sex, or like I'm expected to find a skeevy sex scene satisfying or acceptable. But in fan fiction, the discourse and culture combine to specify writing that's for an audience that finds a particular scenario or trope kinky and likes reading about it; basically, there's an implicit understanding that a story with a scene with less than enthusiastic consent is exploring issues of consent or is relying on dubious consent as a kink. The focus is on the sex, and how it turns you on, or in more plotty stories, the focus is on how it affects the characters. In romance novels, it does not read the same way at all to me, because such scenes of dubious or nonexistent consent do nothing to further character development, and usually aren't even sexy or titillating.

Of course, fan fiction (nearly always) warns for things like rape or dubious consent, and frequently, the dubious consent is occurring because both parties are impaired (aliens make them do it! sex pollen! sexy times spell! etc). Most of the reason I rarely read romance novels is that there's no warning system, no real way to tell if a novel is going to actually offend me, no way to ensure I'll actually enjoy reading it as opposed to getting angry and frustrated, and I can instead get a guaranteed enjoyment romance experience by reading well-written fan fiction.