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** spoiler alert ** This is terrible of me because I haven't written the reviews on books 1-3 yet. I fully intend to...at some point in the future.

But...there was so much bothering me on this, I had to do this one as soon as I finished it.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. But this has more to do with my love of Arya and Sam and a growing pride in Jaime. I mostly enjoy the world and the politics of said world and really like the ideas behind the religions and funny seasons and a place where magic can exist but no one believes in it (except for maybe Nan).

There were some points of Martin's style of writing that I only found irritating in previous books but managed to turn into full-blown pet peeve worthy issues of crappy writing. What is this guy's obsession with food anyway? It's like logging into Facebook and seeing everyone's pictures of their meals and about as appetizing. It's horribly jarring to be going along about an inner character monologue and suddenly have an in-depth description of their food right there. What's more, all the characters seem to love describing this food to the same degree.

I'm also getting really tired of really bad sex scenes. Although, Martin's ideas of sex in general are just bad. But this book made it really apparent that he wrote most of his female adult characters to be the sexual fantasies of his male readers. Cersei fought awake, "her breasts heaving." In normal writing, it's still "chest heaving" no matter is the character doing it is male or female. Mostly because women don't spend all their waking hours describing their own breasts to themselves. We shouldn't need to since we live with the things since puberty. That's like a man constantly describing the way his nipples feel every time he rides off to battle.

Those are mostly peevish things, however. Nothing to knock it down a few stars. My biggest issue was the break from the familiar, exciting layout of the prior three books. They all had a lot going on, battles and kings and intrigue. This one dropped the 50 pound ball and forgot to bring a cushion for the floor.

First off, no author has to break a long book into two. I've read plenty of 1000-page books and enjoyed them despite the length. But if an author decides it just must be done, break it so both sides keep the readers' attention. Why in the world did Martin break it in such a way as to leave most of the side or boring characters on Book 4? All that did was ensure that only the determined fans would continue on to the 5th.

Next, book 3 left off with a lot hanging. And I'm not just talking about main characters. There's Others marching towards the Wall. And it's barely mentioned in passing in this book. Though, really, for undead things that don't require sleep or rest, these things sure are taking their sweet time getting to the Wall. They almost make me think they're zombies that lose interest when the food's not right up their nose.

And let's not forget this insane war right before Winter. It's brought up towards the end by Jaime that they burned the fields and snow is falling. They have no harvest. Of course, Jaime mentions it as being too late to plant. No one even touches on the countless number of peasants who have been killed. Several of the villages have been emptied out multiple times by opposing armies. There's hardly anyone left to plant even if they miraculously had the time.

Following along while nothing--and I do mean nothing--happens with Sansa or Brienne was a letdown next to forgotten emergencies in the background.

I'll admit, I was having fun following Cersei. However, this mostly stemmed from my enjoyment of watching her go batshit insane paranoid and turn on everyone around her. And when her own schemes fell, it was cheer/smirk worthy. But I did take issue with how heavy-handed it was done. Throughout the books, Cersei has been the villain. She's the most obvious to hate and Martin set her up that way. Which is fine. In fact, it's interesting to have a character so completely loathe-able. However, she was also known for her wits and court savvy. In this book, she has none. It's as if the woman has completely forgotten everything she's every known and done in her past. Someone else pointed out the psychology of women who come under power and try to emulate men to prove their strength. They pointed out that she was acted more brutal and conniving as her male peers would. I'd accept that if she hadn't suddenly lost all brains during this transformation too. In books 2 and 3, Cersei makes a few mistakes against Tyrion and Tywin but they're more for her lack of knowledge of battle tactics than for her knowledge of court. In book 4, she even loses all knowledge of court as well. Even turning more aggressive to take control, I just can't see that she would turn to such idiotic, unsubtle methods. Anyone and their dog could see what she was up to in this book.

I did enjoy Jaime trying to become the better man though. That was enjoyable. He's not always managing it and that along is what made it more realistic. Jaime's trying and his eyes are opening and it's fun to watch.

I also take issue with the Brotherhood and their blind following of Catelyn. She's obviously gone off her fucking rocker; why are they following her? And if she's sane enough to follow, why would she even believe for an instant that Brienne would betray her? Brienne of the Unflinching Loyalty and Chivalry? It seemed almost like a kind of lazy write off of a character. Ned's death was moving and shocking. As were Robb's and Catelyn's. Joffery's was moving insomuch as it made me cheer in glee. But for someone you spend so much time inside her head, the hanging of Brienne was not only lackluster, it was also a very poor way to treat a character. I'm not talking about side characters you never see into the heads of here. The main characters are usually given more meaning no matter what happens to them.

Unfortunately, I had to give this book a 3. It seemed very forced in many parts of the book and lazy for many others. And it also made many of Martin's bad writing styles stand out more and enhanced his need for a good editor. (Seriously, what was with the "nuncles?") It's still a good book and watching Cersei fall was well worth it but I still wished it over quicker just to get to the next one and more characters I actually give a shit about.