I think it is fair to say that BOTM is feeling the heat from Aardvark Book Club’s monthly hints… and BOTM is trying. Unfortunately, they are falling short. Still, I will not complain about BOTM giving us hints ahead of the book drop.
This month, BOTM’s hint is similar to the New York Times’ Connections; however, it is definitely not in the spirit of Connections since it seems like each group of 4 hints at a book and not a set of similar/connected words.
Hints
Can you figure out how these words relate to each other? Use these 16 words to create 4 groups of 4. Each one might just hint at a March book.
If this hint was in the spirit of NYT Connection, the answer would be as follows.
Instead of grouping similar words or words around a theme, it seems like BOTM wants us to group four words (one from each group) that match a book. Judging from the words, I am guessing that the 4 groups are (1) title word, (2) setting, (3) color cover, & (4) story theme.
Book 1
Once I saw the word “bot,” I thought this book was pretty easy to identify.
Title Word: Bot
Setting: Region
Cover Color: Pink
Story Theme: Technology
Annie Bot
Sierra Greer
For fans of Never Let Me Go and My Dark Vanessa, a powerful, provocative novel about the relationship between a female robot and her human owner, exploring questions of intimacy, power, autonomy, and control.
Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she’s not the greatest at keeping Doug’s place spotless, but she’s trying to please him. She’s trying hard.
She’s learning, too.
Doug says he loves that Annie’s AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie’s relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?
Genre: Science Fiction
Pub Date: March 19, 2024
Book 2
If I had not figured out that each of the words for a book fit a category, I think I could have chose “blood” instead of “rumors” and made a different book (Murder Road) fit. But I think this is clearly Listen for the Lie, which I had as a March shoe-in.
Title Word: Lie
Setting: Small Town
Cover Color: Red
Story Theme: Rumors
Listen for the Lie
Amy Tintera
What if you thought you murdered your best friend? And if everyone else thought so too? And what if the truth doesn’t matter?
After Lucy is found wandering the streets, covered in her best friend Savvy’s blood, everyone thinks she is a murderer. Lucy and Savvy were the golden girls of their small Texas town: pretty, smart, and enviable. Lucy married a dream guy with a big ring and an even bigger new home. Savvy was the social butterfly loved by all, and if you believe the rumors, especially popular with the men in town. It’s been years since that horrible night, a night Lucy can’t remember anything about, and she has since moved to LA and started a new life.
But now the phenomenally huge hit true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie,” and its too-good looking host Ben Owens, have decided to investigate Savvy’s murder for the show’s second season. Lucy is forced to return to the place she vowed never to set foot in again to solve her friend’s murder, even if she is the one that did it.
The truth is out there, if we just listen.
Genre: Thriller
Pub Date: March 5, 2024
Book 3
These words stuck out for me because I was pretty positive that BOTM would select Anita de Monte Laughs Last for March.
Title Word: Laugh
Setting: City
Cover Color: Yellow
Story Theme: Art
Anita de Monte Laughs Last
Xochitl Gonzalez
New York Times bestselling author Xochitl Gonzalez delivers a mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten―certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Pub Date: March 5, 2024
Book 3
I would have posted my guesses to the hint much earlier in the day, but I kept looking for a March release that fit these clues. Finally, I realized the book that best fits these words is a late February release.
Title Word: Blood
Setting: Kingdom
Cover Color: Blue
Story Theme: War
A Fate Inked in Blood
Danielle Jensen
A shield maiden blessed by the gods battles to unite a nation under a power-hungry king—while fighting her growing desire for his fiery son—in the first book of a Norse-inspired fantasy romance duology.
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya spends her days gutting fish but dreams of becoming a warrior. And of putting an axe in her boorish husband’s back.
Freya’s dreams abruptly become reality when her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, landing her in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. And it’s been foretold that such magic will unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate.
Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn. If Freya succumbs to her lust for the charming and fierce warrior, she risks not only her own destiny but the fate of all the people she has sworn to protect.
Genre: Fantasy/Romantasy
Pub Date: February 27, 2024
