Little Squirrels Can Climb Tall Trees

By: Michael Murphy

Narrated by: Nick J. Russo

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.

©2012 Michael Murphy (P)2014 Dreamspinner Press

Good narration and interesting story

Joseph is at the gym when he bumps into (literally) one of the hottest guys he’s ever met. This strikes up an immediate interest in one another and they end up going on an inadvertent first date that lasts the entire day.
Kyle, the “hot guy”, is an ER doc, fresh out of Harvard, who hasn’t ever really dated. He knows he’s gay, but he was raised in a very conservative household, then went to a very difficult school, then a demanding residency and now he’s so buried by student debt and (weirdly) shyness, he doesn’t know how to act with Joe.
Luckily for them both, Joe knows an “awesome man” when he sees him and doesn’t let Kyle go. He shows him how to be a gay man in New York and it doesn’t take long before they are in a committed relationship with one another.
Kyle still has to come out to his family and Joe still has to battle with Kyle’s insecurities now and then, but mostly, this is a love story. Simple, straight-forward, but hilarious.
Joe’s inner dialog is hysterical. Kyle is pretty funny, too. Together they go from first times, to moving in, to meeting the family all the way through their first vacation (Kyle’s first airplane ride!) and a proposal!
There are other, secondary characters, who give the story even more color and humor, and all in all this is a very light-hearted, full of hot times, funny love story that makes you laugh and say awww at the same time.
I really enjoyed it and give it 4 of 5 stars.
Audio:
Nick J Russo has down some really good narrations in the past and I was looking forward to his narration here. Let me tell you, I was blown away. He is so damn funny! He does Joe’s inner dialog to a “T” and then he adds in these other characters: Mano has this hysterical Hispanic accent that is just swishy enough. Kyle has a tough but tender southern drawl, but diluted by time away from home. Kyle’s mom is all back woods hick with attitude.
It doesn’t happen often, but for me, I enjoyed listening to this book even more than reading it – Nick does such an entertaining job of bringing these characters to life.
I highly recommend it and give it 4.5 of 5 stars.
Overall I’d round up to 4.5 for the audio book, it’s just delightful!
Overall Impression:

4.5 stars – I loved it

Not my favorite

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A different narrator.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

The ending was one of the rare parts of the story I enjoyed.

How could the performance have been better?

Less energetic unless the emotions are called for within the story.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I really liked the character of Kyle, how he was a small town boy done good, grown up nice, still a Southern gentleman with that naive air about him.

Any additional comments?

Joseph spots the super sexy and super tall Kyle for the first time at the gym they share. While he is too busy ogling Kyle in the beginning to recognize the mutual attraction, soon enough the two are on the same page. Well, sort of. As I said, the attraction is glaringly obvious as is the chemistry, its communication these two have to work on. Well, not so much Kyle, Joseph has to stop thinking about himself long enough to hear what Kyle is saying.

Kyle is a small town boy at heart having grown up in Oklahoma with super conservative parents. He never got to experience frivolous things like movies and trips, and he has never really had a boyfriend, much less had sex. Joseph has done all that and more, so much more, and once they get past the initial hurdles set up before them, Joseph wants to show Kyle everything. If they can find a balance between life, work and love.

I tried so very hard to like this story. I did enjoy the concept of a small town boy who grew up nice and moved to the big city, intent on experiencing everything. He stayed a true southern gentleman and became a doctor, eventually falling in love. My problem was I never felt a real connection to any of the characters, especially Joseph. I thought he was a pretentious snob in the beginning and though he was written to redeem himself, I never got past that rocky start. Then there was the whole strict upbringing for Kyle, his obvious homophobic mother who freaked when he told her he was gay. Then she does a complete 180 in a matter of hours. It just wasn’t believable.

The narration was not so hot either, sadly. This was my first audio with Nick Russo, and I wasn’t impressed. For the first half of the story he sounded like he was hyped up on caffeine and xanax, constantly overly excited even when the story didn’t call for excitement.

Sorry guys, I didn’t much care for this one. There was potential and perhaps reading the written words would have a different outcome for me. As I said, I liked the character Kyle and everything he was about. So, if you are thinking about grabbing a copy of this one, I’d suggest going with the print or e-book. But that is just my humble opinion.

Not great

An okay story but not well told here. I like Nick J. As narrator but this performance fell flat.