Sorry, I should have been more specific.
I think in the books GRRM will continue with the 'this takes a lot of time' concept. I don't think we're going to go immediately from the Night King to King's Landing in a chapter or two. I think considerably more time will pass so that (a) they can recover from the Battle of Winterfell, (b) they can strategize and possibly rally more allies to the cause (I don't think Yara/Asha is just going to vanish) and (c) reposition armies.
This would allow for a more gradual decent into madness for Dany, more time for Jaime and Brienne, more time to sort out whatever the heck Bran's arc was supposed to be (I don't believe it ends with 'and I sit in the courtyard as bait'), etc.
And I don't think Jaime is in love with Brienne, per se. I see Brienne representing the person he wants to be and Cersei the person he was before that. He realizes not that his relationship with Cersei was wrong, but what he did to maintain it was (i.e. apologizing to Bran for throwing him out the window). He loves Cersei, but the path that led him down took him away from his more noble, knightly goals, as did his having to kill Aegon. So Brienne is redemption and the path he wanted, but Cersei is, in the end, where his heart truly lies. It's not a 'pity ****' but a desperate attempt by Jaime to hold on to that sense of honor that he lost.
Just my take