Story Behind The Book
It started with a song: Acid Jazz Singer by The Fratellis. It was going to be a lark, a just-for-fun vamp tale. Who knew Travis McKenzie would highjack the story and take me, and my readers, down the rabbit hole?
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Reviews
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><strong><em>Stacey Danson: Book Review of Acid Jazz Singer</em></strong></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Finally a book that doesn’t resort to cliché driven characterizations. Author Nya Rawlyns has taken the vamp genre and with superb plotting and a pen dipped in an adventurous readers soul she has crafted a tapestry as bloody as it is moody.<br /><br /> The narrator Travis is utterly believable irrespective of the functions of his body … Travis is a cold killer, a complex and totally enjoyable character to get to know. Trust me … know him you will, his emotions are held in check, but never completely hidden. The author has given him a heart and soul, a pulse rate, needs, desires, and lusts that refuse to stay hidden.<br /><br /> Travis is a character that will stay in the mind of the reader, long after “The End” appears on the final page. <br /><br /> We care about this man…in all his forms. I will not spoil the ending for the readers . The book crosses so many genres…it is a Vamp story….yes indeed, yet one the likes of which I haven’t had the pleasure of reading before. It is a love story..a love that is as real and complex as any you will encounter.<br /><br /> How does someone like Travis deal with loving a being that is both male and female? The psychological implications are so well thought out, that you the reader are captured by the passions and confusing eruption of lust, and brought to tears by the unrelenting tenderness of the love Travis has for Ray/Raylee.<br /><br /> The action sequences are superb, fast pacing, and relentlessly good descriptive sequences have you holding your breath in anticipation, and then sighing as you exhale…expect the unexpected, you won’t be disappointed.<br /><br /> All in all a superb reading experience. I am looking forward eagerly to more of the books in this brand new series. Bravo, Nya Rawlyns!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en">**********</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><strong><em><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en">Sara Curran Ross Reviews Acid Jazz Singer</span></em></strong><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en">:</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en">' Anyone who loves the tv vampire series True Blood or is looking for a new slant on the vampire story or indeed a love story would be hard pressed to find any better than <em>Acid Jazz Singer</em>. This is a must have read.'</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;">**********</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;">Bill Kirton Reviews Acid Jazz Singer</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;">The popularity of vamp literature means that its stories are becoming repetitive and sometimes appear to be written by people who only know the clichés and not what they represent. On the other hand, there are those with a deeper understanding of the myths and the subconscious urges they represent. Nya Rawlins is one such person. In The Acid Jazz Singer, vampirism is just one of the threads of a gripping, pacey story whose narrator has the sharpness, wit and immediacy of the classic private eye of crime fiction. There's eroticism, shape-shifting (and perhaps its ultimate manifestation - transgendering), all set in a moral context in which good and bad seem negotiable. The action sequences are breathtaking and Rawlins is in complete control of her medium, whichever of the levels she's handling. <br /><br /> And these various threads aren't simply exercises in genre-mixing, they're woven together in a texture which extends the vamp metaphor of draining the essence from another and fuses it with love and its ambiguities. Travis, the narrator, is far from the conventional hero, the characters who surround him are complex beings themselves who resist easy pigeonholing and, amongst the violence, eroticism and mayhem, there's a sweet central tenderness linking him with the transsexual he protects and loves, RayLee. <br /><br /> This is the first of a series and, even as its resolution answers some of the narrative's challenges, it's clear that there are more ahead for Travis and that some of these scenes may be revisited. It's a very satisfying book, an excellent, page-turning read and a story which transcends the limits of genre fiction.</p> **********<br /><br />Greta van der Rol Reviews Acid Jazz Singer:<br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;">This is gritty, down-and-dirty urban fantasy where good and evil aren't necessarily white and black. If you're looking for Twilight vampires, you're in the wrong spot. But if you want fast-paced action and excitement aplenty, you'll enjoy this book. There's a second on the way. Woohoo.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;"> </p> <br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0in;line-height:normal;"><br /><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"></span><span style="color:#333333;" xml:lang="en" lang="en"></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:normal;"><span> </span></p>