An excellent introduction to intriguing series, I very much like originality in books rarely have such religious & theological overtones within a fantasy setting been combined with a book that is clearly not biased towards any single religion or to even a specific idea towards religion, the book uses religion quite heavily whilst remaining entirely unbiased and indeed entirely neutral, something as an atheist I applaud, after all just because I don't believe them doesnt mean I don't think they have they're uses..... within fiction and it's refreshing to see a book partake of that side of the culture without intentionally leaving an after-taste of religious views.

The character's are well defined and easy to identify with, and the new world painted within of sufficient complexity to easily comprehend whilst being sufficiently engaging to remain interesting with numerous revelations by the end of the book, overall a well written book with a unique theme, and I look forward on anticipation on the next book in this new saga. ( )

The apocalypse came, pregnant woman that survived everything gave birth to the mages.

I love this setting, it's magic and what it is like. Thorn is more human than many and still thrives in her half-develop powers. She is a good main character, not perfect, self-sacrificing more often than not and she loves more than she should.

Loved this. ( )

One-sentence summary: The Biblical Apocalypse has begun, and a mage fights the dark powers.

Why did you get this book?: The completely ridiculous cover and my weakness for novels about dystopias, the Apocalypse, and Catholic mythology.

Do you like the cover?: Yes! How can you resist?

Did you enjoy the book?: Enjoy is the wrong word; I read it with great relish -- the plot is fairly fun but at someone point, the author seemed to lose control of the novel. It was like a train wreck with angels, sexual tension, and Biblical references. ( )

Great book, 1st in its series. It takes place after the Apocolpyse, where some humans survived, although Seraphs (aka Angels) are still among the people and the Most High rules the earth. There are also mages, one of which is the center of these books. There are demons as well as their creations. Demons attack humans and mages often, especially mages. Anyways, it really turned out to be an engaging and interesting world with lively characters and some really nearly erotic scenes. :) A must-read. ( )

This book was not my cup of tea. Overly purple. I only made it to the point that the main character fantasized about her love interest holding a bale of hay above his head, naked. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am hoping to get ahold of the next two in the series soon. Well written story with characters of depth. A very different sort of apocalypse story from what I've ever seen before. ( )

First of a post-apocalyptic fantasy series that features Thorn, an unlicensed stone mage living in a small Appalachian town. As far as she knows, she is the ONLY mage out there living outside of an Enclave, and to be found out means certain death for her. She, along with several friends, owns and operates a gem and jewelry store while trying to hide the fact that she is indeed mage, and not human. When her ex-husband is kidnapped, she gets involved in trying to find him and realizes after a time that he was taken by forces of Darkness. I really like the post-apocalyptic ‘world’ of this book and the premise for it, but a couple of things were quite annoying. The first is that mages, while able to have sex and mate with humans, actually go “into heat” around other races (kylens and seraphs) and the author described this mage-heat at great length and in many places. I guess she thought it really sexed the book up, but to me, someone in heat without control over their sexual urges and instincts is just plain not sexy.

There were also several other things that just didn’t add up. For example, as soon as one of her business partners sees these certain scars she has, and gets a good look at the amulets she wears under and within her clothing to disguise her glowing mage appearance, he recognizes her as a mage. How is it that she was able to hide that fact from her ex-husband when he saw every inch of her many times over and surely encountered the amulets during physical contact? Etc. I will read more in this series because, as I said, the premise is great and I like the main character and the writing style, but less of the going into heat thing would not go amiss. ( )

Faith Hunter's world is a freshly unique one -- life after Revelations, where technology is on the fritz, humanity has been culled, and angels rule the world. Navigating this world can be confusing as Hunter tries to provide history and backstory without slowing down the plot. The effort is worthwhile, though, for an unusual sotry that blends desolation with innovation. And while the religious tones were a little heavy for a heathen like me, there's always something exciting and fearsome about angels -- especially hunky ones -- and I was pulled right in. I have every intention of picking up the rest of this series in the near future. ( )

Whole review is available at Realms of Speculatife Fiction

Excerpt from the review:
Remember my review of "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer? In short, "Twilight" is a book written with great style but at the same time being completely plotless. While reading "Bloodring", I was instantly reminded of "Twilight" - both books fall pretty much under the same genre (paranormal romance for "Twilight" and urban fantasy for "Bloodring" - as daydream said in one of the comments, these two are like 'twin sisters, the one pink and fluffy, the other hardcore and bad to the bone. But the gene make up is the same.'). Also, both include an unusual young woman as the main protagonist, not to mention that in both cases, this young woman ends up attracted to a young ''man'' (who, in fact, is not a man at all, and not necessarily young, either). "Bloodring" is clearly the better of the two where the plot and the mix of fantasy genre conventions are concerned, but unfortunately, the style of writing falters more often... ( )

Well written and with good ideas but I'm cranky with sciatica and couldn't get into it. It had lovely complex ideas about Seraphs - are they related to God? - and how to live in a post nuclear winter where angry angels and demons are real. I liked the character of Thorn. Maybe it was just too complicated for me with my concentration fractured by pain. I felt like I should have liked it more than I did... ( )

The setting for this series is an interesting blend of fantasy, apocalyptic Christian theology and a little bit of sci-fi. It's 105 years after the apocalypse and there's still some technology from our time. Global warming is in full effect.

Hunter did a good job using religious mythology without becoming preachy. Although apocalypse has happened and there are both seraphim and demons, here is no one true religion. The society is very conservative and religious, however and it is definitely noticed if you don't attend church. Have said that, I was glad to see that two of the characters were openly gay (one rather flamboyantly so) which was at least tolerated in the more conservative religious society.

The characters were interesting and the protagonist had some depth. ( )