Thank GOODNESS the Wiki of Ice and Fire EXISTS. I've had to go over there and refresh my memory on the reason why Bran and Rickon aren't together, and who the fuck Val is, and what happened with Jon just before this book started. I think I should have reread A Storm of Swords, at least, before starting A Dance with Dragons. I keep having to remind myself that this book picks up where Storm of Swords ended, and not where A Feast for Crows ended.
If the HBO series keeps on going through all the books, I bet they merge Feast and Dance together and split it into two seasons somewhere in the middle of it all. I wish GRRM had done that, it would be less confusing to my OLD brain.