This just make be one of my favorite books of 2024. Margo find herself pregnant after a relationship with her college professor, when she decides to keep the baby she quickly finds herself without family support, the dad wanting nothing to do with the baby, fired from her job and roommates moving out. Support comes from unexpected people and Margo works to create a new career for herself that is viewed as unhealthly by some but allows her to be his full time caregiver and support him. Throughout this she is navigating relationships with friends and family, her community, hoping to find love and discovering how much love you develop as you become a parent.

This book was exceptional. My favorite read of 2024 so far. I both laughed hysterically and sobbed. It was so hard for me to go to sleep knowing I had chapters lefft to finish.

Toxic relationships abound in “Margo’s Got Money Problems.” Parents, professors, and roommates, Margo does her best to make up for other’s bad behavior. While the main character makes many poor decisions, her motivations are for the best. With so much going on in the book is amazing it all comes together in a quick and heartwarming read.

This book is such an easy read! It flows wonderfully! I really enjoyed it and wish there was more. Now I’m downloading something else the author has written. Highly recommend this one!

A charming, quirky story about a young woman's unique coming of age, told with an absolutely singular voice.

What a fun book - I really love the way Ms. Thorpe's brain works because her plots are unique but believable and seamlessly sensical. I root for her underdogs. Recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really realloy loved this book. It was so fresh, unique, and modern. While Margo finds herself in a very particular (and maybe slightly exaggerated) position, she felt real and full of depth. I also think the author does a great job of explaining the hardships that parents and especially mothers go through in this country with no mandated parental leave and the astronomical expense of childcare as well as the perils and expenses of the legal system when custody is involved. I picked this book up and couldn't put it down. I will be (highly!) recommending this on my page shortly.

This plot is humorous to me! A very creative concept. I enjoyed the snark and rawness of the main character.

I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles is pure fun! A book about Margo, the daughter of a former Hooters waitress and a former professional wrestler somehow manages to be the funniest and most charming book I’ve read this year. A book loaded with heart - you’ll fall in love with Margo and her most unusual group of family and friends. A highly entertaining read!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for this ARC.

This has had pretty fantastic reviews on bookstagram so far so I was intrigued and excited to start it. The beginning was endearing but I quickly became bored and uninterested in the repetitive-ness of the story - not to mention the whiplash between first and third person narration. I was disappointed in some of the ways pregnancy, abortion, and poverty were talked about and just was not impressed with it at all. I didn't find some of the interactions funny like had been described on booksta, but rather was a bit bothered by the power dynamic between Margo and her professor. I tried the audio but it didn't engage me either so DNF at 11%. Thanks anyway for the ARC.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles sucked me in from the first page and I couldn’t put it down! I finished it in one day.

This book was so unique and the writing was clever. I just loved the voice of Margo. She is very wise for being so young and the book has many many gems. I have actually never used the highlight feature in my kindle before but I couldn’t help myself with lines like “You can't tell me that if it was men and a medical decision would result in their penis splitting open and them not being able to hold their pee for the rest of their life, they wouldn't think that should be their own decision." There are so many good tidbits in this one!

The characters are also all so good! The author did such a fantastic job making them all so human. No one felt one dimensional and they all just felt really real.

I can tell this will be in my top books for 2024 already. I just adored it and hope everyone reads it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc.

Oof. This was good but didn’t hit like I think it could have. But man, Margo is resilient. I guess I’m not the demographic that would appeal to this kind of character. The talk of OF and abortion is too much for me and it was too casual.

Stop here. If you haven’t read this yet, don’t read the review just go for it right now.

I was not expecting the emotional rollercoaster that this book would take me on.

When Margo gets pregnant while in college, everyone important in her life encourages her to not move forward. But Margo chose to keep her child and raise Bodhi on her own. Margo has a complicated relationship with both parents (as most people do). When Shyanne (Margo’s mother) disagrees with her choices she lets her know. When Jinx (Margo’s dad) disagrees with her choices and gets angry and then wholeheartedly supports her through it anyway.

When Margo joins OnlyFans to make money to support her and Bodhi, her life goes on a wild journey with complications and challenges at every corner.

I loved the character development for Margo as a person and in her relationships as she finds her way through motherhood and beyond.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You will like this book if you like: laugh-out-loud writing, chaotic family dynamics, books that play with person, thinking about the business and ethics of OF 🍼👽

BOOK: Margo’s Got Money Troubles, by Rufi Thorpe

🚨CW: giving birth to your professor’s baby, CPS, vomiting

I thought this book was going to be funny. It was not in any way. It was sad and maddening and demoralizing. Margo certainly has money trouble, but she has way more ethical troubles, starting with sleeping with her married college professor and getting knocked up. Yes, he pursued her and was in the power position, but how in this day in age can one be so dumb? Dumb to let it happen and dumb to have not used effective birth control. I appreciated that Margo took responsibility for her own role and wanted to be a good person in raising her baby. I appreciated her struggles with trying to work and find/pay for childcare as a single mom and can only imagine the utter exhaustion and frustration. But, plenty of single women manage it via work ethic, hustle, creativity, and good decision making. I felt that Margo was looking for the easy way out of her financial difficulties through her singular pursuit of sex work and social media influencing. That she was well-rewarded for her efforts is demoralizing to the millions of women working their entry level jobs, selling Pampered Chef or Pure Romance or Avon, putting themselves through school to get a better career, and managing to raise a kid or two. Through poor planning, Margo loses her waitressing job, doesn't have a back-up plan, and never honestly attempts to get gainful traditional employment or go back to school once she had her OnlyFans gig established. This left me not particularly liking Margo as a character.

Of note, the book flips back and for between first person and third person every few pages. I didn't get how that added to the story (it got just a few paragraphs in Margo's classroom reflection, but I failed to see how it related), and I personally found it annoying. This book was well on its way to a 2-star review until the last 35 pages. Here, we see Margo developing some maturity and starting to make better choices and think about a long-term plan. Perhaps there is hope for her after all.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

While enrolled at her local community college, 20-year-old Margo has a brief affair with her English professor and ends up pregnant. She decides to keep the baby but soon finds herself unemployed as working and finding childcare is not so easy. Desperate for money, Margo decides to start an OnlyFans account and becomes quite successful at it. But sometimes success comes with a price.

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did! I absolutely loved Margo! She had so much thrown at her, but she tried to navigate life the best that she could, and I was constantly rooting for her! There were so many heartwarming moments, and so many times I laughed out loud! I was a little sad when this one ended!

I listened to the audiobook after seeing that Elle Fanning narrated it. She did such a great job! Then I found out that this book is going to be a series on Apple TV, and Elle will be playing Margo! I'll definitely be watching!

Oh my where to begin! I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. With a crazy and unique synopsis that reels you in, the surprisingly heart-warming, intelligent, and humorous content is what keeps you hooked. A compelling story that explores interesting modern themes and dilemmas with morally grey characters that you can’t help but fall in love with. Margo, while annoyingly naive, is a complex young woman and a protagonist worth rooting for. I loved how the book made me reevaluate the social constructs in place and societies stigmas regarding professional sex work, I’ll never shut up about this book!!

Margos also got a whole lot of gumption. What a great and unique story that explores the means of OnlyFans as a means of income. Margo’s family and friends are delightfully built characters that make you settle down and just devour this book! Her dad is easily my favorite character. If you are looking for something different, with a slight edge but also a soft gooey center…this is your book 👍

I previously loved Rufi Thorpe’s book The Knockout Queen so this was a highly anticipated 2024 read for me.

This is such a unique & relevant story. Wrestling and OnlyFans make for an interesting combination and I loved how they connected. The writing style is quirky and funny without being juvenile (like in a YA kind of way). My favorite character was Jinx – Margo’s ex-wrestler dad. We stan dads who support their child no matter what!

This book is about people who are just trying their best to live life in this hellscape and we can all learn something from that. We are so quick to judge without really knowing what’s really going on in someone’s life. There are important topics raised like single motherhood, poverty, and treatment of sex workers. This book is slated to become a TV series and I think it will work incredibly well in that format.

Here are the “cons” if you can call them that: the book switches back and forth between first and third person, which may bother some readers. It’s a strange choice but I guess it was supposed to relate back to conversations with the English professor? I didn’t 100% get that part. Also the ending was a bit abrupt imo, but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the book at all.

I had a fantastic time reading this book! It really makes you question what you would do if you were in the FMC place. I love the depth that the author brought to the characters and the character development was great.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the eGalley!