Loving the characters you create

As a writer are you allowed to love your characters? Deeply, madly, forever? I had a passion for Kira, Caledon and Tierken in the @thekirachronicles that was missing from the many previous iterations of what is now my Hunter duology (to launch in 2015). With Kira, Tierken and Caledon, I continue to have an emotional reaction, not just tears and laughter but a deep ache. I struggled with Fleet/Chant and Tel in the Hunter duology, and they are still further from my heart. I reclaimed the deep, involved passion with Warrain and Lirra in The third moon (also to launch in 2015) and I've certainly got it now with Etaine and Cormac in my #nanowrimo project but I wonder if this is a good thing. Does being in love with your characters/story blind you to your writing flaws? To character and plot defects? I also wonder, when I read stories that leave me unmoved, whether the writer was unmoved too.