Meh.... Very Spiced Up
921259
It's alright... probably good if you're sick or as a backup. the bag I got was way too spiced, so it tasted less like apples and cinnamon and apple spice and more like spice. Definitely smells like the holidays though which is really good during the holiday season or if your just feeling nostalgic.
310399
a little bland but I think if you added some corn and maybe some peppers, a few spices it would be really good.. I ate it but it was kinda meh...
2095040
I love the original.  It really does hold back hunger and my husband has been burning through it also so I thought I'd try the Cinnamon Spice.  Nope, don't get it.  It doesn't mix well, it's like drinking sand.  And the flavor isn't that special.  Stick with original.
4939045
I love all the other flavors of Frontier Soups Ive tried - this is the one exception. It was bland and frankly I ended up throwing it out. Like another reviewer said, you can add lots of fresh veggies to make it better, but I was looking for something simpler.
4136437
There was so much great stuff in this book. I thought the two steps forward, one step back relationship with Cormia and Phury was titillating. The progress in the story of Lash and John Matthew, Thor, the revelations and development of the Qhuinn and Blay, and revelations about Rehvenge - Wow.

Unfortunately, the story about Phury's descent into drug addiction, taking heroin, being a junkie, being unreliable and creepy, getting kicked out of the Brotherhood - not so much. It wasn't very entertaining to me and I just felt frustrated with him, and not very sympathetic. I thought JR Ward could have done more with this character - the idea of a 150 year old virgin male - she could have built a book around that without all the melodrama about drugs.

I am re-reading entire series. I could barely remember this story, except I knew it was a must-read in the John Matthew saga. It is pretty forgettable IMO. Still better than most vampire romance out there by a long shot.
2884907
I don't want to mislead you and say this entree is terrible, but it's pretty bland. I typically think things are too salty, and right now I'm dealing with a different sense of taste due to chemotherapy, but I haven't found other things blander than usual, and this one really consistently disappoints with the lack of flavor. I added salt to mine, and I almost never add salt to anything.

That said, the basmati rice is superb. At first, it clumps together and feels a bit too hard for my taste, but if I just break apart the clumps with my fingers, the rice separates into perfect, extra-long grains with that lovely aroma that basmati rice has. No oiliness or stickiness with the rice. Just perfect. And it heats up really nicely, especially if you mix it with the beans before heating. I prefer to heat this up on the stovetop, but nuking it works just as well.

The beans part of the entree is lacking in actual beans. I love kidney beans, and I wish this had more of them to enjoy. The sauce is the bland part, and I wish it had more oomph to it, but there ya go. Less sodium should be a good thing, yes? I suppose it's not a terrible thing to have to add salt, as then you can decide just how much sodium the entree will have. EXCEPT that it already has its own sodium content, and you're sending it over the top by salting the entree. Yikes.

Regardless--not a terrible entree, but not a great one, either. More kidney beans, please! A titch more salt! There  ya go.
1097079
Have got every one of GF's books, and was so excited about receiving HOD. Sadly, I found it lacking.
There wasn't all that much romance compared to her previous books, and I found myself skimming some of the pages as they were boring.
Will buy the second book in the Spice trilogy, and hope that it is an improvement on the first.
I hope GF doesn't follow Johanna Lindsey's path of losing the flow through a couple of books before returning to her former writing style in latter novels.
3145579
It seems that the main driving force behind this book was the desire to capitalize on the brand/appeal built by the first movie (which wasn't a block buster either)..
Some effort has gone into making the new characters more whimsical but the final result is to something to write home about.
VERDICT: a lukewarm 'meh' ... watch it if you just want to pass some time & have exhausted other options.
316798
Creole makes me think of tomatoes and bell peppers with a zip to it...this is very very bland. It would be ok to jazz it up but that sort of defeats the idea of buying packaged gravy mix if one must add everything else to it! It is more like a watery tomato soup-type "gravy" if you like...but the flavor is what gets me. It's just got no spice to it. And I've bought Zatarains products before and felt they were too salty and maybe in some cases a leeeetle over the top with cayenne. What a surprise to find this gravy is thin and watery and has very little flavor and no spice! Now, to be fair, it could be the end-of-the-run and I could have gotten a bad batch. I don't know. But I definitely will have to take their advice and "Jazz it Up" if we want to enjoy it.
4859708
I was so looking forward to this, but epic fail.

It is little more than the Sharp Cheddar version, with the ridged noodles and nice sharper sauce.

But the jalapeno may as well be parsley flakes, it adds no discernible spice, hotness or any flavor at all to the sauce.

I did fall back to my favorite add in, 1/4 cup medium salsa (or whatever thick salsa you want) to a bowl of mac and cheese.  Now it's got a little burn and some nice bits of tomato, onion and real jalapenos.
3251829
I like the Oriental flavor, but it is a little flat and bland. The minute I tasted it I knew it was missing something. It obviously needed some onion flavor.  I added a dash of the Mrs.' onion and herb seasoning, and it was a hundred times better!  Just a pinch gave the soup a huge flavor boost.
2993273
Cute, but not nearly as good as I had expected.

I am a huge Anne Tenino fan-girl. I have read almost every book that she has written, and her stories are my favorite comfort reads. However, this book was a bumpy ride.

First of all, the beginning of this story was terrible. I hated the lame excuse for these supernatural creatures to invade the bar where our MC, Ryan, worked, and the easy way that everyone accepted the mythological beings. It just didn't make sense to me. The world-building felt rushed and lazy.

I also was super grumpy about the insta-lusty/love between Ryan and Leander. They barely said two words to each other and there were all of these emotions at play. Bleah.

However, at about 50% through the story the tides started turning. The sex scenes picked up and everything got hotter... cuter... way more enjoyable. I began to get into the groove of the story, and my face got all smiley and happy.

If you like mythological beings and gods playing on Earth, light paranormal romance, and some pretty hot sex then you should check this one out. For me, the lackluster start and the lack of a slow-build almost sank this ship before it got out of the harbor.

*Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
4959486
Certainly decent, but I didn't find it to be anything special as so many reviews suggest.  It is pretty hot, but not in the Insanity Sauce class.
158391
Chicken salad is generally pretty simple, this was not simple by any means.  It had an overpowering spice taste that didn't suit it at all.  I've eaten quite a few different chicken salads and I've honestly never had one that tasted so gross as this one.  I realize personal preference plays a role, I couldn't get two of my friends (who generally like chicken salad) to have more than a single bite.  I see a lot of comments about it being too spicy or too bland, so many it just depends on who's making it--it seems there isn't much in the way of consistency.  I had high hopes and was massively let down!
3097956
The Nick character has potential, but story would be better without the romance and sex scenes... In this time of sparkly supes, more grit is needed. Leave the romance/sex/soft porn to the plethora of lazy and less imaginatively gifted authors. Would like the back story of how his friend became a werewolf, and just HOW is it that Nicks father knew to keep a weapon with silver bullets at the ready?! No answer to that question even by the second book in the series... I realize lots of women eat that romance stuff up. I gave the series a shot, but time to move on...
3401994
As others stated, it has some spice as a little back heat.  But not so much that I didn't enjoy the flavor.  And I do not enjoy hot/spicy things as I've been known to say, "I like flavorful, not painful food.".  But I was disappointed in the sogginess of the 'crust'.  And crust is an overstatement.  After baking it until done.. and then adding 3 more minutes in hopes the coating would crisp up, its still was a soft coating.  The only browning was on the bottom of a few pieces.  And I did preheat the oven and only when at temp did I start coating the meat in the sauce, then crushed tortilla & spices.  As soon as the last piece was coated they all went immediately to the oven.  (I knew not to let a crispy/crunchy coating sit around when sticking to any liquid..)  I have 2 more boxes to use, and I will use them.  But I won't be ordering them again.  On the up side, at first I didn't think I could freeze the cooked items for use in future lunches. (I worried that crispy coating would not stay crisp once frozen & thawed.)  But now that I know there was no crisp coating, I went ahead and froze a few servings.
2483740
As a lover of Indian food, the spicier the better, I was looking for a way to bring a similar level of heat that I get from a good Vindaloo to other dishes. I knew that if I wanted to match the heat of an authentic Vindaloo I needed a 'super hot' sauce made from some of the hottest peppers, and I wanted it to be all natural (no extract), so I searched online and found Torchbearer's Zombie Apocalypse and Rapture sauces.

Unfortunately, I was not impressed by either. Both are certainly hot enough, but maybe I'm not the target market for these sauces, as I'm as interested in good flavor as I am in heat. I understand that for some hot sauce lovers, it's all about the heat and taste comes a distant second. On the other hand, maybe it's just that these sauces are an acquired taste, but for me, both of these sauces taste awful: they both have the flavor of cheap perfume. Maybe Trinidad Scorpion Peppers and Ghost Peppers have that flavor (I don't know) or maybe super hot sauce enthusiasts simply find that flavor attractive. All I know is that I never want anything I eat to taste like this.