I agree with you 100 per cent on the romance — I found it really squicky, particularly the fact that he knew her as a baby, which is a particular dislike of mine.

I wouldn't have minded those ideas being explored, but not through Lyra herself. One of the things I liked so much about her in the original trilogy was how confident and brave she was, and how little made her vulnerable (although I suppose leaving Pan behind in the world of the dead was the first thing that really made her vulnerable). I don't object to a story in which she had relatively little power, I guess I object to the ways Pullman chose to render her powerless.