NOTE: This post first appeared in the Roswell Daily Record…

Continuing my exploration of unusual heroes in scifi romance, this month I present to you the Yeti. Yes, the Abominable Snowman himself has now become a staple of the romance world.

We’ll start with Izzie and the Ice Beast by the always wonderful Honey Phillips. This ‘yeti’ isn’t from Earth, but he’s an alien version, on a self-imposed exile from his own planet, Hothrest. He’s found a career as a gladiator but underneath all the fur and muscles a gentle heart beats and he’s not happy. Enter Izzie, a kidnapped human woman who needs rescuing in the worst way and suddenly Baralt has purpose in his life again – save Izzie and take her away to somewhere safe. They end up back on his home planet and of course there’s a Happy Ever After ending.

Slippery When Yeti by Tana Stone brings us back to Earth, where the female main character is a wedding planner from Miami who hates hot weather. The MMC is an ice sculptor turned into a yeti by an accidental ingestion of a party potion gone wrong. She’s just taken a wedding planning job in Screaming Woods (nothing alarming about that town’s name, right?), gets lost in a snowstorm and is rescued by the yeti. Together they must ride out the storm in his isolated cabin and as any romance reader can tell you, the outcome is an HEA ending for the couple. This book is part of the multi-author Monster Between the Sheets series, which you can check out for a wide variety of inventive monster-as-love-interest reads.

Taking off from the Siberian legend of a people known as the Chuchunya (yeti by another name apparently) author Marilyn Barr gives us Spooning My Chuchunya (Snuggling Under SnowDrifts Book Two). Dr. Sydney Decker is roaming the Canadian tundra looking for a friend she wants to rescue from a dangerous cult. Sergei is a Chuchunya who can’t find a mate among his own clan because of his intimidating nature.  He has to make difficult choices between following the rigid customs of his clan or saving Sydney, who is a strong assertive woman able to handle his powerful personality. The book is a slow burn, with plenty of time to get to know the characters and enjoy the world building before the HEA arrives.

Taken by the Yeti by Adrian Blue starts with a Help Wanted ad for a cold tolerant intern with hiking experience. Only after it’s too late and she’s deep in an isolated, snowbound area does the FMC find out she’s been hired to act as bait for hunters intent on capturing a yeti. She’s trapped in a cabin to serve as the lure and the hunters set up camp close by. Yeti to the rescue (the hunters meet a bad end) and romance blooms. This is a really short story but fun and heart warming.

In Ready for Her Yeti (Alaska Yeti Series Book One) author Neva Post’s FMC takes a short term job as the winter caretaker at an isolated lodge, only to find out there’s already a yeti in residence for the winter, making himself at home. He’s got a month to make her fall in love with him and it’s a fun read. As one reviewer said, “The only problem was it ended.” But never fear, book two is in the works, Fake Dating Her Yeti, featuring a different couple.

The Bridal Hunt: Whychoose Fantasy Romance (Brides of the Hunt Book One) by Jeanette Lynn has a curvy heroine going solo on what was supposed to be a romantic trip with a boyfriend, complications ensue and then as the blurb says “something large, white, hairy and completely Abominable drops in uninvited”. She’s kidnapped to another planet/plane of existence by this snowman and becomes the eventually willing bride to a reverse harem of hunky, furry alienish yetis. The FMC is equal to the task of handling all her MMC’s and the HEA follows.

An Abominable Affair by Maddie Syn pairs a prehistoric huntress desperate to feed her family with a yeti who is willing to help, for a price. As the book blurb asks, “Can a tiny human thaw this yeti’s frozen heart?” Turns out he only wants to meet and talk under the full moon but romance blossoms and problems follow, resolving into the HEA.

Snowed in with the Yeti: An Erotic Monster Romance (Yetis in Love Book One) by Brigid Finn begins in a time after the San Andreas Fault has opened up and released monsters of various types into the world, which of course results in large numbers of human deaths and the disruption of civilization. The FMC is trudging through the Arctic, going from one survivor settlement to the next hoping to find a home, when she’s pursued by another monster and rescued by the yeti. He’s sweet, doesn’t speak much English and a perfect match for the strong willed FMC. Reviewers praised the world building and again wanted even more of the book.

As a side note, there’s quite a bit of yeti erotica out there, in which the emphasis is on the spicy bedroom scenes and not on the plot or the characters, versus romance novels like those above, which may feature those smoking scenes but as an integral part of the developing relationship between the characters. You could have the story without the intimacy, whereas in erotica the kink and the spice are the story. Finn’s book, above, straddles the line.

I’m waiting for Regine Abel, the amazing author of the “I Married A…” scifi romance series to give us her take on a yeti. She hasn’t said she’s writing such a novel but one can hope, right? She’d definitely do the topic justice.

Happy reading!