What is the ruling on reading romantic novels?

Islamic Sharia has prohibited everything that leads to fitan (trials/temptations), and the fitna of a man by a woman and a woman by a man is among the greatest of these fitan. Sharia has blocked the paths to this fitna by prohibiting a woman from traveling without a mahram, private seclusion with non-mahram men, displaying her adornments before them, and speaking in a soft, alluring manner. Reading romantic stories and novels contradicts this Sharia objective due to the corrupting consequences that result from it, such as arousing desires, inciting instincts, giving scope to bad imaginations and thoughts, and occupying time with what is not beneficial. Therefore, it is prohibited. It can be replaced by stories of the prophets and the righteous.