I started listening to the audio books right as I started watching the show (mid November) and finished all 14 novels by mid January. It was an almost non-stop affair. Fun to relive the whole story, too.
Admittedly, it made some of the choices the showrunners made pretty blatant when they departed from the novel, but it also worked if you accepted removing yourself from the written timeline.
I think I mentioned this earlier, but the Trolloc attack in ep1 is pretty awesome and I think they did a stunning job adapting these nightmare creatures! The Lady, in re-watching it, didn't want to see that part again.