Note: This post first appeared in the Roswell Daily Record.
One interesting subtrope in scifi romance is the four armed alien hero. I have to say I prefer the more standard set of two arms but I give kudos to the SFR authors who have figured this adaptation out and use it successfully to please their readers.
The first four armed hero I ever read was Rendash in Claimed by An Alien Warrior: BBW Alien Romance by Tiffany Roberts and I was very drawn to him in spite of myself. This husband-and-wife writing duo are amazingly skillful at making their alien heroes relatable and sexy. The plot felt like a classifc scifi movie – captured alien manages to escape the secret government lab where he’s been tortured, steals a car, kidnaps the curvy human female who is already having a very bad day – and off they go on a cross country run to reach his hidden ship and escape. There was adventure galore, close calls, a growing romance and a very satisfactory Happy Ever After ending.
Regine Abel is another SFR author whose praises I often sing and she recently published I Married a Beast (Prime Mating Agency) where her hero has four arms and four eyes, the better to see his human heroine Belle. Both of them signed up for this interstellar dating/mating agency although he’s not entirely sure why he took the step and she’s looking for someone really different to be paired with. I’d say she got what she asked for, even if the quadruple arms and eyes were a surprise. The author works in a lot of world building with the vast differences in the characters’ cultures and backgrounds and of course there’s an HEA.
L. P. Peace is writing an entire series with four-armed aliens, the Klevian Warriors, of which Tacori is the first installment. Here the stakes are high, the worldbuilding is vast and the romance is pretty instantaneous but fraught with challenges. The enemies to lovers trope is at play here, which is always fun to read and Evelyn and Tacori are a great couple. There’s also an Artificial Intelligence along for the trip, which adds complications.
Classified Planet: Turongal (Darvel Exploratory Systems Book One) by S. J. Sanders presents readers with another four armed hero, Rhyst, who is less humanoid than some of the other SFR male main characters but comes with all the right emotions to be a great mate for Charlene, AKA Charlie. The author has created quite a fascinating dystopian future for the humans, which forms the backdrop for the romance and the enemies to lovers trope comes into play effectively. Rhyst is captured for nefarious reasons and helped to escape but then wants some revenge. He gets love instead and an HEA.
Beauty and the Alien Beast (Galaxy Alien Warriors Romance) by Sedona Venez presents Teken, the four armed alien gladiator shifter. On an undercover mission to bring down an alien slave smuggling ring, Teken sees newly abducted human Ella and realizes she’s his fated mate. Of course he breaks her out and they’re off and running across the planet, trying to escape. Reviewers rate this as a spicy tale and relished the handling of communication difficulties between the pair in the early portions of the book.
Zarros Alien Hybrid (Perinqual Galaxy Hybrids Book Four) by C. Y. Croc takes a four armed alien prince wrongly incarcerated on a terrible prison planet by his evil stepsister and a human woman who just got out of an earthly prison but is abducted by aliens, and puts them together. Of course! What else? Nina just wanted to turn her life around and find a partner, have a family and settle down. Zarrus wants to get back to his home world and regain everything his stepsister stole from him. The two together are a combustible duo, and reviewers enjoyed the rapid action, the spicy scenes and the way the couple became a team.
Author Nessa Claugh takes an older Big Beautiful Woman (BBW) heroine and a four armed alien warrior and spins an exciting tale in Within Alien Arms (The Ragrim Conflict Book Two). Her futuristic Earth is paying tribute to one alien race in the form of thousands of ‘brides’ in return for protection from all the other aliens out there in the big bad galaxy. When Dagnar crash lands on Lucinda’s remote farm, the lies which humanity has been told start to unravel. This is rated as more of a slow burn, sweet romance, with medium heat or spice, and reviewers lauded the high stakes of the plot as well as the romance between the main characters.
Dakstal (The Leviatho Book One) by Juno Wells and Miranda Martin introduces a race of four armed alien warriors who also have scales and fins. They’re on the run from yet another set of aliens who’ve destroyed their civilization and will now be arriving on Earth. Christa, the human space pilot who makes the first contact, finds herself caught up in all the interstellar problems. Some very high stakes here along with romance. This is a two book series.
Vivi Storm and Kyra Keys have a short story series, Mated to the Nilarian, in which human women travel to remote space stations for job opportunities and find themselves surrounded by four armed alien men. These books are listed in erotica, which signals a high steam level, and while reviewers seem to have generally enjoyed the stories, the brevity of the books was often mentioned as a concern. Always good when readers want more, however. Author Jupiter Sky also has an erotica novel, The Alien Prince’s Mate (Intimate Alien Invasion) with a four armed hero who possesses multiples of other useful appendages as well.
I noticed many of the authors only wrote one book with their four armed heroes, although there were exceptions. As an author myself, I’d find it a challenge to keep track of the extra arms when writing scenes and especially the spicy bits. Respect to those who have tackled the challenge.
Source: Auto Draft
