I have never heard of Aimee Crocker before reading this book ! Wow ! What a wild adventurous life she lived. I loved reading about her. She was really breaking women's social norms during her time period. The author did a great job researching Aimee Crocker and bring her to life in her novel. The author's novel flowed very well and was easy to devour in few sittings. I highly recommend giving this one a go if you enjoy historical fiction.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

A Life Well Lived - Historical fiction fans will love this book. This is the fictionalized story of Amy Crocker Ashe Gillig Gouraud Miskinoff Galitzine. In 1875, ten-year-old Amy inherited $10 million (equivalent to $200 million today). With her wealth, Amy led a life of adventure and scandal, far beyond the bounds of a decent woman of her time.

She lived life on her own terms, without consulting any man or her mother. I was fascinated.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing an early read in exchange for a fair review. This is my favorite type of book – featuring a strong female historical character who defied the norms of her era.

This book follows the many adventures and so many lovers of Amy Crocker. The book takes place during the 1800s when women didn’t have the rights to divorce and travel alone and many other things that we take for granted now . This book was very entertaining, but also similar to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by but set in different time period, some of the husbands were similar to each other.

Poor Amy. She's so lost. She doesn't know who she wants to be, or who she wants to be with. All she knows is that she does NOT want to be who her mother wants her to be (or to be with). She goes on a journey, as the title suggests, through different men. She even briefly tries on motherhood for size (it does not fit). She also journeys through different geographic locations, which are vividly described and great fun for the reader to visit. Amy also goes on a spiritual journey though different belief systems. She spends her life on a giant "who am I?" quest that only an heiress would have the time and money to indulge in.

Ay the end, when she meets and speaks to her Thirteenth Husband, it's kind of poetic.

I was blown away by the author's note at the end to find out how much of this story is based on truth. The truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Lankmark for the complimentary Advanced Reader Copy provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I had never heard of Aimee Crocker before reading this book and now I just want to read as much as I can about her! A woman much ahead of her time, we see Aimee go from young naive heiress to an incredibly secure and self reliant woman who did not give A DAMN what society thought of her. Aimee herself was written so well and seeing her journey and reading about her travels and husbands was so fascinating. I did have some issues with the pacing however. The first third had me turning pages as quickly as I could, but the book lost steam in the middle and the end. There seemed to be more telling instead of showing and that was a little disappointing. I still overall enjoyed it and like I said before, it left me wanting to read up more on Aimee Crocker so I’m happy I read it!
CW: animal death, infidelity, death

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for an advanced digital reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review.

I hadn't previously heard of Aimee Crocker, the woman this novel is based on, but I was immediately sucked into the story. The writing is so relatable, and I was fascinated by her unconventional life. The chronology skips around a little bit, but it was easy enough to follow. I really enjoyed Aimee Crocker. She's written as such a strong and enigmatic person. Though she went through struggles and heartbreak, she was always able to rebuild herself and pursue her passions.

Though the story takes place in the 1800s, there is nothing stuffy and conservative about our protagonist. I found that interesting to consider. We always assume, people lived by certain standards during particular time periods, but that’s not even true now. People can live a variety of ways. Great wealth allowed Aimee Crocker to live the life she wanted and not be limited to a prescribed destiny.

I read the ebook some months ago, but I have listened to a sample of the audiobook, narrated by Suzanne Toren. She is a phenomenal narrator and brings the characters alive.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Hmmmm.

Real-life heiress Aimee Crocker became a millionaire at a very young age. She took the money and lived a carless and adventurous life, craving a real love. After marrying before 20 years old, she desperately tries to hold on to the marriage - despite her first husband's issues. Then...she asked for a divorce...the first of many.

That's kind of her whole...deal. This was a Page Six type of woman, her every move was documented in the papers. Marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce. It's all very...pointless.

I didn't enjoy this one, despite it's glitter and glamour. Because underneath, this was a lonely woman with too much time on her hands.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

The Thirteenth Husband by Greer Macallister is a fictionalised account of the life of a real woman, Aimee Crocker, written in the first person so I feels almost like a memoir while reading.
I knew nothing of her story before picking up this book, but having read other works by this author I knew I would be in for a unique story , and in that the book did not disappoint. While the story hangs on the bones of real historical events, the author makes it very clear that it is a work of fiction and even incorporates a mystical element into her story telling.
Aimee became famous at the age of ten when she inherited a vast fortune, and later became notorious because of a string of marriages, divorces and scandals including marrying as the result of a poker game, marrying several younger men one of whom had an affair with her adopted daughter, and a love of tattoos, snakes and French bulldogs. Such a fascinating character gave the author plenty to work with, and the story she weaves is a good one but I found the pacing a little off. I know there was a lot of ground to cover but the ending felt very rushed. While Aimee is not always a likeable character she is definitely the heroine of her own story, and I was invested enough to keep reading and even found her sympathetic at times.
An entertaining book about a fascinating character.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This is a first time author to me. I really didn't care for this book. It just wasn't all that interesting to me.This is the first book I read of here's and I didn't really like it.

DNF. I have enjoyed Greer Macallister's previous works, but unfortunately I really couldn't get invested in this book. From the start I didn't care for Aimee, and I was quickly bored by the scandalous events and relationships in her life. The book is obviously very centered on her, and sadly I don't care enough about her to finish the whole book.
My feelings are mostly personal and I don't think there is nothing especially wrong with the book, so I'm sure many other readers, who sympathize with Aimee more, will enjoy it.

"My life has been filled with men, shaped by men, from my gone-too-soon father and several not-gone-soon-enough husbands, legally recognized and otherwise."


If you go in expecting The Eight Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, try to tamper your expectations. I also had this in mind until I remembered a passage from an Emily Henry's book about a mena comment saying he tried to write [other author's name] but failed, and he says he only tried to write something good. The Thirteenth Husband is its own book and should be appreciated as such!


The research behind this book must have been so time consuming and interesting, I had no idea the book could be based on a real story until I reached the Author's Note. It also made me wish I had known earlier that the quotes at the beginning of each chapter comes from the actual memoir of the real Aimée.


I quite enjoyed it though it was a bit long and event lacking at times, though that may just be my impression because of my lack of memoir reading. Her life as it was told in The Thirteenth Husband is definitely book worthy, I just wish we could have been able to connect more with Aimée on an emotional / personal level. I sometimes had difficulty understanding her tbh


"No matter how far we wander in our lives, how many thousands or millions of miles, in the end, we only need six feet of land for our final rest."

Review posted on Goodreads

Based on real life heiress Aimee Crocker (1864-1941), this is a whirlwind trip through her life. Many husbands, adventures, countries, this was a woman who became an heiress at age 10, found freedom in being divorced and lived life to the fullest, especially for her time! A fortune teller told her that her thirteenth husband would bury her, and she had many encounters with the supernatural, which was extremely popular. Sometimes weird, but always entertaining story.

Practically un-put-down-able!
Aimée *choose a husband's last name* lived quite a remarkable life. Searching for love in all the wrong persons, Aimées life was lonely, despite being extremely extraordinary.

The fact that this is based on a real life heiress is mind boggling. It's quite the read & I thoroughly enjoyed it!

The saying "Truth is stranger than fiction" is so true. I never heard of Aimee Crocker before, but that is the beauty of historical fiction. This story shares her unbelievable adventures and many husbands and male companions from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. In chapter one, a mystic told Aimee that her thirteenth husband will bury you. As the story progresses, you learn how she spends her wealth and how she meets the men in her life where some become husbands and many are friends. She comes from money and uses it to travel the world through amazing adventures meeting kings, counts, magicians, etc. Remembering that she is not traveling by plane, but by ship and train, makes the travel all the more remarkable. By the end of the book, we learn about a character that was shadowing the story all along and it may surprise you.
This character reminded me of Marjorie Post who also had money and led a sensational life. The author does a great job explaining how she took the truth and created the fiction in her author notes. So much of the story is true but she explains how she adjusted facts and dates to fit the story. There is also a Question and Answer section where the author explains how she found Aimee Crocker as a character in history.
If you are looking for an historical fiction story about a lesser known figure, a story with a touch of mysticism, and a story with a lot of heart, I recommend this book.
#TheThirteenthHusband #NetGalley
Thank you Net Galley for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

DNF at 10%. I love that Greer Macallister has tried to bring to life such an intriguing woman, but the execution of the story fell flat. In trying to create a faux-memoir, the book feels disjointed and detached, failing at scene-setting and doing more than telling me things instead of showing them.

I'm afraid this one just wasn't for me. First of all, the timeline just seemed off. I had to keep being reminded she was writing about the late 19th century because every scene seemed straight out of the 1920s. With that in mind, Amy's life seemed pretty implausible, even with all her money. Also, there seemed to be a lot of odd events. The encounter with the man in Hawaii seemed to come out of left field, and then it was over; it seemed so random. I just couldn't get into Amy, and I had to DNF this one when I was halfway through.

'I think it is folly to allow a single chance for pleasure slip past you'

In the 1880s, Aimee Crocker inherited $10 million upon her father's death (the approx equivalent of over $200 million today), and with that security, Aimee was able to live a life of absolute independence and pleasure, 'They were outraged by the notion of a woman determined to make her own choices. They labeled me an adventuress, a hussy, a known menace'. However, money her money didn't seem to be able to buy her true love - or at least for very long. Despite being a firm believer in spiritualism, regularly partaking in tarot readings, and visiting fortune-tellers, Aimee simply couldn't find the answers to resolve her romantic quandry. This didn't stop her from ever trying, 'Rings didn't make husbands. In a way, I had fused with so many other men, some sexual and romantic, some one or the other, some with a different bend entirely'. When you live to an old age, the body count starts piling up!

There is no doubt that Aimee Crocker was an eccentric, who lived her life to the fullest and didn't give two hoots what anyone thought. Her travels, her lifestyle, and her love life coagulate into the fantastical. I’m not sure, however, that, as scintillating as the title is, focusing on her love life was the best angle to take though. Knowing, at the outset, that all her relationships are ultimately doomed, results in parts of the story feeling like a ‘rinse and repeat’. Whereas, other, just as fascinating and outrageous aspects of her life seem glanced over.

Overall, this is still a good read, and any historical fiction fan should give it a try and see what they make of Aimee Crocker and her many men!

Reviewed on Goodreads. 3.5 stars. Interesting story about a woman who has multiple husbands and travels the world in a time that women weren't really encouraged to do either. This book is based on a real person, which I can't tell if I like or not. The real parts of her life were definitely worth writing about (so many crazy things!) but it also limits the author. I felt like the book didn't pick up until at least halfway through, if even then. Maybe around 75% I figured out a conflict/plotline other than just walking through her life and that she was writing it TO someone. Some parts of the writing included unnecessary details. Overall it was a fine historical fiction but I won't be recommending it to friends who like to read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @Sourcebooks for this ARC. Amy (Aimee) Crocker, at the age of 10, became an immediate millionaire and heiress when her father passed away. That same night she sees a "women in white" and continues to see her over the next several years before someone passes away. She soon begins to rebel at an early age and weds the man that wins her hand in a poker game at the age of 17. Now that she believes in the clairvoyants, she sees one that tells her that she will marry 13 times and the 13th husband will bury her. This one piece of "fortune" haunts her through life. Based on a real person, Amy (Aimee), was dubbed the Queen of Bohemia and was marked a woman of the world who broke all the rules. What a life! #ThirteenthHusband #GreerMacallister #Sourcebooks #Landmark #Aug2024

Greer Macallister’s “The Thirteenth Husband” is a riveting exploration of Aimee Crocker, a real-life heiress whose life was a whirlwind of public scandal, private pain, and unparalleled independence in the 1880s. Crocker, who inherited a vast fortune at a young age, defied societal norms with her adventurous and flamboyant lifestyle, traversing four continents and marrying multiple times. The narrative opens with Aimee’s father’s sudden death, leaving her a ten-million-dollar inheritance that fuels her lavish adventures and tumultuous love life. Her desperate quest for romantic love, influenced by her parents’ business-like marriage, leads her to multiple divorces, which were scandalously publicized during her time. Macallister skillfully explores the societal pressures and personal desires that shaped Aimee’s decisions, making her a fascinating figure of resilience and defiance.

The title, “The Thirteenth Husband,” initially seems misleading, but the book cleverly explains the significance of the number thirteen in Aimee’s life. The story delves into the prediction made by a Spanish fortune teller that her thirteenth husband would be her undoing, adding a mystical element to her already extraordinary life. Aimee’s encounters with high society, exotic places, and mystical arts are vividly portrayed, showcasing her interactions with German princes, Spanish toreadors, and Hawaiian royalty. The presence of the mysterious Woman in White, who appears before every tragedy in Aimee’s life, adds a haunting dimension to the narrative.

Macallister’s portrayal of Aimee Crocker is both empathetic and critical, highlighting her strength and the societal constraints she navigated. The book’s pacing is dynamic, though it occasionally slows as Aimee’s adventures begin to feel repetitive. However, the engaging beginning and ending, coupled with the mystical aspects of Aimee’s story, keep the reader hooked. In conclusion, “The Thirteenth Husband” is a captivating blend of fact and fiction, offering a rich tapestry of a woman’s bold defiance of societal norms. It’s a must-read for those intrigued by historical figures who lived life unapologetically on their terms.