Unsteady by Melissa Collins Release Blitz

Micah Hudson and Jude MacMillian were both lonely teenagers. One the new kid and one the target of relentless bullying, they quickly became friends. But when friendship grew into more, the relationship was too much for either to handle. As their tenuous bond was tested, everything tumbled down, leaving them lonely once again.

A decade later, Micah is on the brink of losing his will to live. Beyond exhausted from lying to everyone, including himself, Micah thinks of the one person who knows his deepest secret. Desperate and alone, Micah makes the only decision he feels he has: he must leave. But his need for closure depends on one thing.

Can Jude make room in his Unsteady life for Micah once again?

Book 3
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Sarah – ☆☆☆☆
3.5 stars

Angst. Steamy, weepy, heartbreaking angst. The world is against Jude and Micah from the moment Micah meets Jude in a high school locker room. They only manage to share a few fumbling, tender moments before fate intervenes and separates them for more than a decade. This is the story of their reunion, but a series of disjointed flashbacks allows readers to understand their journeys back to each other.

As an adult, Micah is a war vet, an amputee, and somehow, he has also become a husband and a father. His responsibilities are overwhelming and as much as he just wants to escape everything to be with Jude, he can’t leave his son behind. Jude is still tied to his past. He still lives in the same town and he still cares for his alcoholic father. Life in the closet is lonely, but he fears losing his job if he comes out.

There are so many barriers between Micah and Jude and only readers who thrive on angst will really appreciate the full-on emotional drama in this book. Both men are constantly remembering and reflecting. Neither man shares secrets, emotions, or thoughts easily, so there is a whole world of miscommunication brewing between these two. Personally, the melodrama was a little over-the-top – even before the gunfight, the car crash, and the lawsuit.

I struggle with heteronormative white-picket-fence plotlines in gay romance. Here, the sweet domesticity at the end of this story feels slightly emasculating and it changes the tone of the whole book – it didn’t quite work for me. I also felt that too much was concluded too quickly at the end of this story. Jude and Micah go from hopeless to happily ever after in a few pages with an epilogue offering a quick summary of the happily ever after. I needed a little bit more to fully believe in their life together.


Angie – ☆☆☆☆
I really liked this story except for one thing. It took way too long for Micah to tell Jude his secret. This book flashes back and forth from past to present and from Jude and Micah's points of view. The reader falls in love with them and wants them to get their happily ever after. Like I said, Micah waits way too long to tell his secret and then when he does, everything is wrapped up pretty fast and with a bow on top. I would have liked to see it told sooner and dealt with more, but I did enjoy reading their journey.


Shannan – ☆☆☆☆
Unsteady is a second chance romance story and can be read as a standalone.

Micah and Jude met in high school. Jude put on weight between middle school and high school, the friends he thought he had turned on him. He became the butt of the joke until the new kid stuck up for him, became his friend, and helped get him back in shape. Having a common bond over dad issues and working out, Jude never expected Micah to feel the same way about him.

Micah didn't plan on falling in love with his best friend, but when it happened it was the best thing in his life until Jude's rejection of him. Micah's life turned upside down and he tried living a lie, but couldn't do it. When Micah finally can't take it anymore, he jumps in the car with his therapy dog and heads toward Texas and the only place/person he didn't have to hide from.

Jude's shocked to see Micah after ten years. So much has changed, but can things be like they were? Is there enough between them to get past the secrets of the past?

Unsteady is such a good read. I love the emotion that Ms. Collins puts into the characters. She writes some of the best m/m I've ever read.

Also Available in the On Solid Ground Series

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our stop on the On Solid Ground Blog Tour.

Book 2
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
~  Available with KindleUnlimited  ~

For reviews & more info, check out our stop on the On Higher Ground Blog Tour.

Melissa Collins has always been a book worm. Studying Literature in college ensured that her nose was always stuck in a book. She followed her passion for reading to the most logical career choice: English teacher. Her hope was to share her passion for reading and the escapism of books to her students. Having spent more than a decade in front of a classroom, she can easily say that it’s been a dream.

Her passion for writing didn’t start until more recently. When she was home on maternity leave in early 2012, she read her first romance novel and her head filled with the passion, angst and laughter of the characters who she read about it. It wasn’t long before characters of her own took shape in her mind. Their lives took over Melissa’s brain and The Love Series was born.

Connect with Melissa

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of Unsteady (On Solid Ground #3) by Melissa Collins to read and review for this tour.