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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Greer Macallister presents a mystical interpretation of the life of American heiress Aimee Crocker in The Thirteenth Husband.
This fictionalized version of Aimee's story is told from the historical figure's perspective as she recounts her life to an unknown audience. Macallister gives her protagonist a witty, vivacious, and wry voice that gives such life to Aimee. It felt like I was being told a series of stories by a fascinating new friend who had a well-lived life, with a side of the supernatural. Aimee was an incredibly engaging character to follow.
The mean difficulty was that as complex and lovable as Aimee was, we barely got to know the characters who came in and out of her life. That makes sense given the narrative structure. This still ruined the enjoyment for me since the primary stakes were in what happened to the other characters because we know our protagonist got through well enough to tell her story.
For another issue, I do think that the title is a cheat. The author's not at the end gives a bit of historical context for it. But it's not enough to stop the title from being misleading since expectations are created that won't even be halfway filled.
Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This fictionalized version of Aimee's story is told from the historical figure's perspective as she recounts her life to an unknown audience. Macallister gives her protagonist a witty, vivacious, and wry voice that gives such life to Aimee. It felt like I was being told a series of stories by a fascinating new friend who had a well-lived life, with a side of the supernatural. Aimee was an incredibly engaging character to follow.
The mean difficulty was that as complex and lovable as Aimee was, we barely got to know the characters who came in and out of her life. That makes sense given the narrative structure. This still ruined the enjoyment for me since the primary stakes were in what happened to the other characters because we know our protagonist got through well enough to tell her story.
For another issue, I do think that the title is a cheat. The author's not at the end gives a bit of historical context for it. But it's not enough to stop the title from being misleading since expectations are created that won't even be halfway filled.
Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Me encantó la primera mitad del libro. La narración fue enganchante y la premisa ¡Uff! Sin embargo, perdió tracción al avanzar la historia. Entiendo que está inspirada en la vida de Aimée Crocker y que la autora intentó poner los hechos que consideró más relevantes y verificables en la medida de lo posible.
Pienso que la segunda mitad del libro no me resultó tan atractiva como la primera porque ya intuía cómo terminaría la novela y que, de ser así, no me gustaría. Pues estaba en lo correcto.
Me gustó mucho conocer un poco sobre la vida de una mujer que fue tan atacada por la prensa, cuya vida parecía de dominio público y que de una forma u otra, ella intentó dominar la narrativa alrededor de sí misma. Eso lo admiro.
Intenté ver los hechos atendiendo al contexto histórico, y aunque me pareció que el cierre del arco de Aimée es el adecuado para un personaje que siempre fue definido por su compañía (cuyos rumores y fantasías se consideraban verdaderos y sin oportunidad de ser refutados, y que siempre buscó entender su propia vida y futuro a través del lente de los demás), no me encantó la ejecución.
Pienso en todo lo que ocurrió y las cosas que tuvo que superar Aimée, pero no consigo que me guste la segunda mitad del libro.
I think I've seen this film before 🥲 and I didn't like the ending 🎶
Me recordó a las historias de Paulo Cohelo (sorry not sorry) y me dejó con una sensación de que me engañaron un poquito.
Gracias @netgalley por el ARC a cambio de mi reseña honesta.
Pienso que la segunda mitad del libro no me resultó tan atractiva como la primera porque ya intuía cómo terminaría la novela y que, de ser así, no me gustaría. Pues estaba en lo correcto.
Me gustó mucho conocer un poco sobre la vida de una mujer que fue tan atacada por la prensa, cuya vida parecía de dominio público y que de una forma u otra, ella intentó dominar la narrativa alrededor de sí misma. Eso lo admiro.
Intenté ver los hechos atendiendo al contexto histórico, y aunque me pareció que el cierre del arco de Aimée es el adecuado para un personaje que siempre fue definido por su compañía (cuyos rumores y fantasías se consideraban verdaderos y sin oportunidad de ser refutados, y que siempre buscó entender su propia vida y futuro a través del lente de los demás), no me encantó la ejecución.
Pienso en todo lo que ocurrió y las cosas que tuvo que superar Aimée, pero no consigo que me guste la segunda mitad del libro.
I think I've seen this film before 🥲 and I didn't like the ending 🎶
Me recordó a las historias de Paulo Cohelo (sorry not sorry) y me dejó con una sensación de que me engañaron un poquito.
Gracias @netgalley por el ARC a cambio de mi reseña honesta.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
She was a woman determined to make her own choices.
This is a fictionalized account of the life of Aimée Crocker, born Amy Isabella Crocker in 1864 and who would eventually bear the last names of five husbands. At the age of ten she experienced the first of many bouts of unfavorable publicity in the press when her father dies and she inherits $10 million, unthinkable to most people of the time. Although her mother and older sister Jennie also were left a similar amount of money, only Aimée was a child at the time (and a female child at that). She grew up extraordinarily wealthy and was consequently able to do things that in those days most women could not or would net even dare to attempt, including drawing the disapproval of society as a whole. The fictionalized Aimée narrates the novel, and its premise as it bounces back and forth chronologically is that she was haunted by three things throughout her life. The first was the tabloid press, who loved to detail both her lavish lifestyle and her many eyebrow-raising exploits (many of which even had a kernel of truth to them). The second was the prophecy of a Spanish fortune teller that she should be careful about getting married as she would do so thirteen times and would be buried by her thirteenth husband. Given that she was 23 at the time and had already been married once and suffered through a very nasty and very public divorce, that type of pronouncement would seem quite a daunting proposition. The third and final thing that would haunt Aimée was an almost literal haunting, a woman in white who would appear to her (often though not always in her dreams) who seemed to regularly utter a snippet of a phrase that would augur the death of someone in her life. The reader is treated to a romp across the world, from California to Hawaii, to major cities across Europe and Asia, all while consuming untold gallons of champagne and indulging in affairs and flirtations, as Aimée learns to appreciate other cultures, falls in and out of love, and generally indulges her every whim. In the end, would she be able to triumph over the things that haunted her? Discover who or what the woman in white really was? Who would her thirteenth husband be, and what exactly would it mean that he buried her?
When I opened The Thirteenth Husband I had never heard of Aimée Crocker, although I had certainly heard about other “poor little rich girls” like Gloria Vanderbilt and Barbara Hutton. The life that this particular woman of means lived held elements of those other two ladies’ experiences, and then went beyond. Mingling with the King of the Sandwich Islands (ie, Hawaii) and occultist Aleister Crowley, regularly marrying men in their twenties even when she was. In her forties and more, narrowly missing sailing on the fatal Titanic voyage (thanks, perhaps, to a cryptic warning from the woman in white?), and running to palm readers and other mystic soothsayers the way a 21st century counterpart might visit a psychiatrist to determine courses of action throughout her life…..Aimée was quite a character. Author Greer Macallister bases the story told in these pages on many actual facts and occurrences, sometimes shifting dates or places to keep the narration contained, and it is a fascinating look at a woman who lived life on her own terms regardless of the cost to her reputation and pocketbook. Money can smooth many paths but can not hold tragedy and pain completely at bay, as Aimée would discover. With the story told. In the first person, I found that the character was not as fully developed as it might have been but her tale was an entertaining read nonetheless. Readers of Marie Benedict, Fiona Davis and Allison Pataki would likely find this an enjoyable addition to their TBR pile, as would people interested in women who live their lives using their own rule book. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Landmark for allowing me access to an early copy of the novel, and introducing me to a woman who lived quite an amazing life.
This is a fictionalized account of the life of Aimée Crocker, born Amy Isabella Crocker in 1864 and who would eventually bear the last names of five husbands. At the age of ten she experienced the first of many bouts of unfavorable publicity in the press when her father dies and she inherits $10 million, unthinkable to most people of the time. Although her mother and older sister Jennie also were left a similar amount of money, only Aimée was a child at the time (and a female child at that). She grew up extraordinarily wealthy and was consequently able to do things that in those days most women could not or would net even dare to attempt, including drawing the disapproval of society as a whole. The fictionalized Aimée narrates the novel, and its premise as it bounces back and forth chronologically is that she was haunted by three things throughout her life. The first was the tabloid press, who loved to detail both her lavish lifestyle and her many eyebrow-raising exploits (many of which even had a kernel of truth to them). The second was the prophecy of a Spanish fortune teller that she should be careful about getting married as she would do so thirteen times and would be buried by her thirteenth husband. Given that she was 23 at the time and had already been married once and suffered through a very nasty and very public divorce, that type of pronouncement would seem quite a daunting proposition. The third and final thing that would haunt Aimée was an almost literal haunting, a woman in white who would appear to her (often though not always in her dreams) who seemed to regularly utter a snippet of a phrase that would augur the death of someone in her life. The reader is treated to a romp across the world, from California to Hawaii, to major cities across Europe and Asia, all while consuming untold gallons of champagne and indulging in affairs and flirtations, as Aimée learns to appreciate other cultures, falls in and out of love, and generally indulges her every whim. In the end, would she be able to triumph over the things that haunted her? Discover who or what the woman in white really was? Who would her thirteenth husband be, and what exactly would it mean that he buried her?
When I opened The Thirteenth Husband I had never heard of Aimée Crocker, although I had certainly heard about other “poor little rich girls” like Gloria Vanderbilt and Barbara Hutton. The life that this particular woman of means lived held elements of those other two ladies’ experiences, and then went beyond. Mingling with the King of the Sandwich Islands (ie, Hawaii) and occultist Aleister Crowley, regularly marrying men in their twenties even when she was. In her forties and more, narrowly missing sailing on the fatal Titanic voyage (thanks, perhaps, to a cryptic warning from the woman in white?), and running to palm readers and other mystic soothsayers the way a 21st century counterpart might visit a psychiatrist to determine courses of action throughout her life…..Aimée was quite a character. Author Greer Macallister bases the story told in these pages on many actual facts and occurrences, sometimes shifting dates or places to keep the narration contained, and it is a fascinating look at a woman who lived life on her own terms regardless of the cost to her reputation and pocketbook. Money can smooth many paths but can not hold tragedy and pain completely at bay, as Aimée would discover. With the story told. In the first person, I found that the character was not as fully developed as it might have been but her tale was an entertaining read nonetheless. Readers of Marie Benedict, Fiona Davis and Allison Pataki would likely find this an enjoyable addition to their TBR pile, as would people interested in women who live their lives using their own rule book. My thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks/Landmark for allowing me access to an early copy of the novel, and introducing me to a woman who lived quite an amazing life.
adventurous
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
The Thirteen Husbands by Greer MacAllister
The Thirteen Husbands is based on real life Aimee Crocker who was from a wealthy family and considered a Bohemian and American mystic. She was very scandalous and known for having many lovers/husbands and throwing extravagant parties. She inherited 10 million dollars (what would essentially be about $300 million dollars today) at a very young age when her father died. Her inheritance gave her the confidence to live life her way. After her first divorce a mystic told Aimee that her thirteenth husband would bury her.
I really enjoyed the author’s previous novel The Arctic Fury so I was eager to read this one. I listened to the audio and honestly I would have preferred another narrator. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I physically read it. I did enjoy learning about Crocker and her eccentricities. All in all it was a solid read.
3 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you NetGalley for providing an early audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!!
#NetGalley #greermacallister #thethirteenthhusband
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
medium-paced
So I appreciate being able to read and review this ahead of schedule and I did finish this, but I struggle with how to rate this. Like is it a well written story and a heartfelt memoir style story steeped in magical realism? Yes it is. Did I mostly enjoy it? Also yes, but unfortunately I didn't love it. I think I was looking for this to be a similar vibe to the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and it kind of was, but it felt very superficial. I wanted to go deeper into the drama with each of the husbands.