Earth's End

This is an odd one to give 3 stars to.
Firstly, I am hugely excited to read the next book and will start reading it as soon as I can.
Secondly, I flew through the book and it was certainly enjoyable on the whole and a good book when viewed as a whole.
Then, there was the romance. Horrible, boring, cliche and only forgivable because it set up its own demise.
Also- what did you do with my aldrik? Whilst he needed a fair bit of character development, he just becomes a love blinded idiot for the second half of this book.
I am in the habit of ignoring romances when reviewing YA. 80% of the time I vehemently dislike the way they are handled. But this romance ruined an otherwise decent book, with some amazing parts and some no so amazing parts.