Just finished it
Overall, I thought Brandon did an amazing job. There were a few things that seemed a little out of place for me (esp. Mat), but most of the time I was just wrapped up in the story. I'm guessing that he didn't spend too much time on the Mat chapters as I noticed a couple of typos, so hopefully Mat will be a little more back to normal in the next book. I thought the Egwene chapters and the Rand chapters were both really well written. The Rand chapters were pretty painful to read and the Egwene chapters were just awesome. I loved the "Brandon avalanche" at the end. It's so great to read a WOT book where stuff actually happens again
Regarding the hands thing, I would guess that it was either accidental, or it just sounded better than "Rand rested his head on his hand and his nub." That would kind of kill the moment.