OMG I FINISHED! AND BEFORE 2014!!! 
 *collapses* 
 This was definitely the best of the bunch so far, but book 3 was a close one. 
 Dying to see what happens next. And now I get to go root out all the conspiracy theories and spend my life on the forums (yes. I'm doing it.) to further dive into this world. 
 Full review originally posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide: A DANCE WITH DRAGONS was my very last read in 2013, closing out the year epically! I'm so glad I got to finish this in 2013 to totally finish the read along for A Song of Ice and Fire all in 2013! PHEW!!!! And now that I'm finished... Can you say series hangover? 
 So A DANCE WITH DRAGONS. It's a toss up between that and A STORM OF SWORDS to name a favorite of the series so far because both were pretty epic in their own rites (although for the love of Pete, these are all flipping epic) but A DANCE WITH DRAGONS felt a bit more anticipated simply because of the full-length novel set-up that was A FEAST FOR CROWS. As stated in my review for AFFC, this was more the "part two", focusing back on the main characters that dominated the first three books and boy, was I happy to see them again! 
 First things first: THE DRAGONS. WOOOOO!! Loved seeing their prominence in this book and consequently, how badass (yes, even more so) that Dany became because of her dedication to them. She's also pretty badass on her own and she's still one of my favorite characters! I loved how much the dragons affected the characters themselves as well as the overall plot of the book. 
 One thing I notice looking back from when I first picked up A GAME OF THRONES is really how different these characters are from when the series first started. The villains have shown their softer side and they've suffered their own plights as well. Many people that started off the series as antagonists had me feeling quite a bit of sympathy for them! Also, of course, spending so much time with all of the characters has really instilled a place in my heart for them. We've been reading these massive books for ten months now and when I finished.... I honestly didn't know what to do. Sometimes I still feel weird that I'm NOT reading them because I hadn't taken a break for ten months! 
 As usual, GRRM throws in a few insane twists that you did not see coming. And I love it. At times, sure, I still want to throttle him (as I'm sure most of his readers do), but I also appreciate that the heroes of these books are never fully safe. I find something realistic about that because hey, bad things happen to the good guys too. 
 The way this plot has grown from the first book is incredible too. There are so many different layers of the story -- from one character to the next and multiple characters being involved in many different big events. Even the smallest things they do can turn out to have a big effect on the entire story. It's quite fascinating how detailed this world is and yet how well GRRM keeps it all together and constantly moving.