Little Squirrels Can Climb Tall Trees by Michael Murphy

 Kyle Miller is a rare breed. Though born to conservative parents and raised in small-town Oklahoma, Kyle realized young that he had to escape rural America. Now he's living in New York City, working as an ER doctor, and paying off his massive student loans. He's never been on a plane and never seen a movie, but he is worldly enough to recognize attraction when it smacks him in the forehead. Not that he knows how he managed to crack heads with Joseph, who's a good foot shorter than Kyle's six and a half feet.

Joseph is Kyle's polar opposite in other ways too, well-off where Kyle is poor, and self-assured while Kyle is insecure. He's also determined to show Kyle what a great guy he is and bring the confidence Kyle shows in the ER out in his everyday life. But Kyle's hectic work schedule and inexperience with relationships won't make for an easy romance.

First, let me say that this book convinces me of one thing: there are m/m romance books written for gay men and there are m/m romance books written for straight women. This must be one of the former. As it is completely out of style for the latter.

It took me almost five chapters to figure out that the book did not follow the blurb. By the way the blurb was written, I expected a dual point-of-view story. No. It’s from one point of view – Joseph’s – and not even in the way we are used to fiction being written.

My first thought was that this was in first person – okay, I can deal with that – but no. Not even first person. Have you ever been to a one-man play? Or seen one on television? The actor/narrator is describing an event, usually over several years. He talks to the audience, takes a break to have a ‘scene’ with a character from his past, and then immediately comes back to either give background or his $0.02 on what happened.

That is what this book felt like the entire way through. We didn’t even ‘hear’ from Kyle until several chapters in as the first couple were all about his cock. Yep, you heard me right. Joseph went on and on and on and on and on about Kyle’s penis. That was monotonous. And I happen to like that wonderful appendage.

It probably wasn’t until at least chapter ten before I started thinking, “Okay, I might actually like this story.” Even with his ‘one-man show’ going on, Joseph had finally sucked me into the story. The part with Kyle’s mom was great – though her accent needed work. And I was getting into the story – though I’ll admit, it dragged in a LOT of areas. Unfortunately, then they travelled to Hawaii. The author lost me when our two men woke up to find a naked man in their bed. And after they had freaked out and awakened him, all they did was make comments about the size of one or more of their penises.

Between the strange ‘one-man-play’ style, the fact that two points of view were expected but not delivered, and the lags, I give the book 2 stars. But the narration was great. I think Nick Russo did a fantastic job. His narration gets 4 stars. However, the story itself dragged the overall score down to 2.5 stars.

Narration Rating: 4 stars

Overall Rating: 2.5 stars

         

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