I liked The Goblin Emperor a lot. Come to think of it, there's not a whole lot of romance in Ancillary Sword, either, though there is some adolescent yearning on the part of a secondary character.

Now I'm wondering how much of my perception that the shape of a story generally includes two people coming together is based on things I read in my early teens ... like those 'career' novels where the main character goes into a profession and inevitably ends up getting married as soon as she qualifies.