Blog Tour: Rise of the Alpha Squirrel by Kate Lowell

Thanks so much for stopping by for today’s blog tour featuring Rise of the Alpha Squirrel by Kate Lowell.  If you love nutty romances (HAH!), this is one you won’t want to miss.  Rise of the Alpha Squirrel is book 2 of the Nutty Romance series and you really do need to read the first one to fully enjoy the characters and story line.  Plenty of humor, a creative story, great chemistry and lots of nut jokes abound in this short romance!  Keep reading for my review, and excerpt and a giveaway at the bottom of the post!

This post contains affiliate links and I was provided with one copy of this book at no charge in exchange for my honest review.

Rise of the Alpha Squirrel by Kate Lowell

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Author Name: Kate Lowell

Book Name: Rise of the Alpha Squirrel

Series: Nutty Romances

Book: Two

Series should be read in order for maximum enjoyment

Release Date: February 25, 2016

Pages or Words: Approximately 24,000 words

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Gay Fiction, Humor, M/M Romance, Paranormal, Romance, Urban Fantasy

Blurb:

Nathan’s met Vince’s family, but Vince hasn’t met Nathan’s, and Nathan would like to keep it that way. Holy smoked almonds, what else do you do when you know how completely nuts your relatives are?

Why, you ease your man into it, by introducing him to normal shifters. Assuming you can find any.

But with a gossipy werehummingbird spreading the news, and a pair of young red pandas wreaking havoc with their fainting goat friends, Nathan’s about ready to climb into a pine cone and pull it in after him.

Then the local playboy weremoose hears about Vince, and Nathan has to find his inner alpha or the consequences will be worse than moldy hazelnuts.
My Review:

Let me just say that I was intrigued by this story just from reading the blurb.  A weremoose and a werehummingbird?  Seriously have never come across those in any of my shifter romances before! From the very beginning, Rise of the Alpha Squirrel by Kate Lowell is funny, light-hearted, engaging and just downright cute.  Vince and Nathan are very early in their relationship but they both seem to think it is really going somewhere.  Vince wants to meet more shifters like Nathan but Nathan knows that they are mostly a bunch of crackpots and is hesitant to expose his new boyfriend to them.  He is seriously terrified that Vince will run away as soon as he realizes what he has gotten himself into.  But, Nathan decides to introduce Vince to one or two fairly normal weres so they head off to a local campground run by a friend of Nathan’s.

Well, nuttiness abounds during their camping expedition!  There are rambunctious younguns, nosy friends, an overbearing were-moose, and more chaos than you can ever imagine.  I smiled my way through most of the story, found tender moments and sexy moments and many moments where I was not the parent of two overexcitable young red pandas!

Vince is seriously a rock during the camping trip.  He is clearly a bit overwhelmed but takes everything in stride and is open minded, helpful, and generally makes just about everyone love him. Nathan has to let out his inner alpha to protect his delectable boyfriend from an over interested weremoose and he does so beautifully.  I loved seeing Nathan conquer his inner nervous squirrel and take charge!

The author does a great job of creating human characters that really bring to life the shifter that they really are inside.  I loved her description of Charlie the werehummingbird and I really hope he gets his happily ever after soon.  There is just a ton of humor in this story…from a fainting goat to a much-coveted sling shot and all the very cute nut references.  Ms. Lowell writes an engaging and amusing story that really brings to life the whole ‘meeting of the boyfriend’s family’!  Definitely a series a recommend!

 

Excerpt:

Note from the author:

The following excerpt was taken from the best-selling series ‘A Were’s Guide to Living in the Human World’ by Finnley Lakewood, Ph.D, and Gardenner Monk, Ph.D. Please don’t tell anyone where you got this excerpt—I had to take ridiculous risks to get my hands on this book and if they found me, they’d probably eat me.

 

From Your New Life as a New Adult

Chapter 2: To Roommate or Not to Roommate? A Very Important Question

Moving out of the home nest or pack or stream often occasions unexpected costs. One of these costs is the need to pay for shelter from the elements. Of course, you could move to the city and live on the streets, using your animal form to combat the elements, creating your own den and marking your territory, but humans tend to frown on that, and they are so ubiquitous in their presence that it is a near certainty that you will be caught.

If you are caught while pretending to be human, they will call you ’homeless’ , despite the fact that you have clearly dug yourself a lovely burrow and are merely whiling away the day enjoying the sunshine. Humans, however, are not as sensitive or sensible as weres, and therefore, will not notice this. They will force you to move, and might even put you in a type of cage called a ‘jail’, from which it may be difficult to extricate you, especially if your other form is not small enough to creep between bars.

Of course, if you are caught while in your animal form, you will most certainly be placed in a cage. Depending on your species, the human’s next actions may vary greatly. Species they see as common, such as raccoons or foxes, will be taken outside the city limits and released. This is not dangerous, but is inconvenient, and has potential to ruin your evening’s plans.  ‘Exotic’ species—or those that humans consider exotic—maybe be place in a ‘zoo’, which is a sort of human jail and torture center for animals. You will be yelled at and constantly watched, and fed the cheapest of foods—at least until your family is able to locate you and perform a rescue. (See Appendix D for a discussion of the various retrieval groups currently available, organized by region.)

 

Buy the book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BRUW1SU

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-riseofthealphasquirrel-1985056-145.html

Meet the author:

Kate Lowell lives on the east coast of Canada, in an old farm house that has way more personality than it has any right to. During the winter, she spends her time dreading snow, cursing at snow, shoveling snow, and scheming ways to shove it down the kids’ necks. During the summer, she prays not to have snow. 🙂

Kate likes to play in ALL the sandboxes. While her main genres are paranormal and contemporary suspense, she is also interested in science fiction, fantasy and–weirdly–romantic comedy. She’s willing to pay large amounts of money to anyone who can come up with a Time Turner, or find her an agreeable Time Lord to sort out her scheduling problems.

You can contact her at katelowellbooks (at) gmail.com . If you think you’d like to try writing gay romance, come visit her critique group (Link can be found at http://katelowell.com). New members are always welcome.

Where to find the author:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008313548018

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kate_Lowell

Website: http://katelowell.com

Other: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7132484.Kate_Lowell

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28690157-rise-of-the-alpha-squirrel

Publisher: Kate Lowell

Cover Artist: Ana J. Phoenix

Tour Dates & Stops:

25-Feb: A.M. Leibowitz, Hearts on Fire, Velvet Panic, Nautical Star Books, MM Good Book Reviews

26-Feb: Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Wake Up Your Wild Side, Inked Rainbow Reads, KathyMac Reviews

27-Feb: Happily Ever Chapter, Molly Lolly, Love Bytes

29-Feb: Nephy Hart, Man2ManTastic, Bonkers About Books, Open Skye Book Reviews, My Fiction Nook

1-Mar: BFD Book Blog, Dawn’s Reading Nook, V’s Reads, Boy Meets Boy Reviews

2-Mar: Bayou Book Junkie, Jessie G. Books, Alpha Book Club

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