Title: 80% Smoke 20% Show
Author: Chris Redd
Blurb:
80% Smoke 20% Show
All it takes is one intergalactic leap of faith…
For his birthday, Nash expected cake. Maybe a quiet night in. Definitely not a seven-foot-tall, purple-scaled alien doing chin-ups in his living room.
Saluda is powerful. Built for battle. And completely unprepared for Nash.
Nash doesn’t fight with talons or fire. He fights by showing up. By caring. By offering warmth without asking for anything in return.
And that kind of strength might be the most dangerous of all.
To earn his wings, Saluda must prove himself worthy of becoming a Drack warrior.
Strength. Discipline. Control. That is all that matters.
The human male who smells like storms and looks at him as though he is more than a weapon is just a distraction. A small, soft, weak distraction.
When duty demands sacrifice and destiny demands fire, Saluda must decide what kind of warrior he truly wants to be, and whether earning his wings is worth losing the male who has already taught him how to fly.
80% Smoke 20% Show is an MM sci-fi romance featuring a dragon-like alien warrior and the human who redefines his idea of strength. Expect fated mates, found family, storm-charged heat, emotional growth, and a love that proves true power isn’t always loud.
Book three in the Alien Fated Mates series is approximately 100,000 words. While it can be read as a standalone, it is best enjoyed in order.
Nash is a physical therapist and all around wonderful person who just wants to help everyone. Unfortunately, he always seems to fall for the wrong men.
Saluda is a Drack, an alien being who is comparable to a dragon. All his life he has wanted to earn his wings, something that can only be done by proving himself in battle and triggering a sort of biological clock.
When Nash comes home from work and finds a tall purple alien that resembles a two-legged dragon doing push-ups in his living room, to say he is surprised is an understatement. Nash rarely checks his email messages and so he missed several where his cousin Ginger tells him that Saluda is coming to be his roommate. But Nash doesn't mind, he cares about everyone and goes out of his way to show it without asking for anything in return. So Nash does what he can to help Saluda with his job at Smash Clash. But it becomes blatantly obvious to Nash when goes on a date with the nephew of the owner, that something is very wrong with Smash Clash. For example, the aliens receive no fight training at all, and the humans they fight are "boosted" using some method that makes them horrifically strong. Even the strong aliens like Saluda can't beat them. When Nash's latest crush the nephew drops him like a hot potato, Nash begins to see that maybe he's been looking in the wrong places for love. But there's a problem because even when it becomes obvious to Nash that Saluda is as attracted to him as Nash is to Saluda, it becomes equally obvious that Saluda does not consider him worthy of being a mate, and in fact considers him to be "weak." Will Saluda realize that Nash is everything he needs?
I enjoyed reading 80% Smoke 20% Ash, while some parts were hard to read for me, meaning the violence towards aliens, I loved Nash and getting to watch him find love with Saluda. I also adored how he took care of his alien friends, as well as Saluda. The worldbuilding for this series is really good, and I enjoyed getting to learn more about it as the story unfolded. I'm excited to go back and read the first two books in this series now that I've read the third one to find out more about this world, and Saluda's friends. I can easily recommend this book to anyone who enjoys alien romance.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
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