Winter's Heart (Wheel of Time, #9)

I am at the point with Jordan's writing that I am sick of new characters. I can't keep most of them straight anymore between reincarnations, nicknames and when he decides to call characters by their first names suddenly instead of their last. The original group and a scattered few others I can consistently remember now. With that being said this book was a struggle for me until around 500 pages in. If I weren't so invested in the series I would have stopped at 100, but there are characters that I simply need to know about like Matt and Rand. The women in this series I have lost my interest in except for Min. I don't understand their actions half the time and I want to smack them for assumptions they make. The last 100 pages of this book earned it 3 stars, until then I was contemplating a 2 star rating. The accomplishments by the end of this are impressive and I want to know how it was all possible. I'm hoping the next book picks up the pace a bit but I have a feeling I will take a break from Jordan for a few other books before returning.