"Margo's Got Money Trouble" is a really fun read that captivates with its engaging characters and intricate relationships. The charm of the story lies in the portrayal of Margo and her motley crew, making them relatable and endearing.

The pacing of the book ensures a fast and entertaining read, making it difficult to put down. The author's ability to balance humor and emotion adds a deeper layer to this really entertaining story.

A new favorite book! I I really enjoyed the character-driven story and unexpected issues that came up. I appreciated reading from the perspective of an OnlyFans creator since I haven’t thought much about it. The book handles sensitive topics thoughtfully

Margo’s Got Money Troubles

“We were all moving through the world like that, like those river dolphins that look pink only because they’re covered in scars.”

Thankyou @netgalley and @harpercollins for the ARC. Margo’s Got Money Troubles (MGMT) swells with emotion as we watch teen mother, Margo, wrestle with life after the birth of her son, Bhodi. We quickly learn that Margo was perused by her college English professor.

After entering an affair, she became pregnant, and he cut ties—not wanting his wife and kids to find out.

Her mother was a single mom and is trying to reinvent herself by marrying a religious man. Her self preservation of her new “pure” identity overshadows her desire to help Margo. Her dad is a retired WWE wrestler and manager that is VERY well known. But, that career leaves his body broken and with a struggling on/off again opiate addiction.

Margo is fired from her waitressing job. She just can’t get consistent child care. Desperate, she starts an OnlyFans account that is super nerdy on the seo, copywriting, and monetization aspects of the business. Quickly, she begins to make a stable income, pay quarterly taxes, and begin to save.

When her high school classmates begin to expose her online persona and Bhodi’s father begins to petition courts for full custody, we experience a nuanced and complicated view of sex work, addiction, family dynamics, and tested loyalties. At the heart, we see a 19 year old in a really rough spot fight like hell for the love of her child and grow into a fierce businesswoman.

MGMT was an absolute delight of a book. It says big things, but with a professional wrestling and OnlyFans backdrop, it’s an addictively compelling and sometimes absurd story. MGMT debuts on June 11. Make sure to add the one to your summer TBR!!

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
This book is kinda wild, but also seems plausible in that it could happen because I'm sure we've seen crazier storylines on Jerry Springer. Margo gets knocked up during a 6-week relationship with her college professor. She decides to keep the baby and then her mostly absent father who was a pro-WWE wrestler comes to live with her and her roommate Suzie. Her relationship with her father improves, gets worse with her mother who is pretending to be on the straight and narrow while hiding drinking and gambling. Her father is a great grandpa until he relapses and starts using heroin again. Then Child Protective Services steps in. Oh yeah, and Margo started an OnlyFans account to support herself and her baby during all this so that is a whole 'nother adventure in this wild ride. Check it out!

Margo is in a predicament, got knocked up by her professor who wants nothing to do with her, has no support from her mom and a ex pro wrestler dad who sometimes is there for her but most times is not.

What is a girl to do to get money to tackle a new baby and losing her job…. Only fans.

I thought I would not like Jinx since ex wrestler and off and on father of Margot but he grew on me.
Susie the cosplaying best friend made me laugh quite a few times
At around 70% the paragraph started with Reader. That took me out the story and out loud said … what?!?!

I enjoyed the story and seeing how Margo gets through this part of her life but the back and forth of point of view is really annoying.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collin’s Publishing and Rufi Thorpe for a eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Margo has ‘money problems. At age nineteen, she finds herself pregnant by a professor she had an affair with who was married with his own two children.
….Bye- bye-Professor…
….Bye-bye-college …
….Hello baby Bodhi …
….Bye-bye roommates (they couldn’t stand the crying noise during the night). The roommates had exams to take early mornings…
….Hello ‘Daddy’ …. (an ex-addict, ex-pro wrestler). Daddy, Jinx, helps Margo set up an ‘Only Fans’ account as a way to help Margo figure out ways to solve her financial problems.

Rufi Thorpe creates fascinating characters, and thought-provoking trial and tribulations situations. . . keeping the humor going …. (some very funny scenes) …. all the while zapping us with profound wisdom.

Margo’s mother, Shyanne, is a character to reckon with — she has her thoughts, beliefs, opinions, judgements…. and has no qualms about expressing them.

I totally enjoy Rufi Thorpe’s books.
I’ve read:
“The Knockout Queen”
“The Girls From Corona Adel Mar”
“Dear Fang, With Love”

Each book is better than the next. Each one becomes my new favorite in the moment.
Rubi’s human-universal themes move me…..and she’s a very intelligent skillful author. SHE KNOWS WHAT SHE IS DOING….and it shows!!

Her keen insight into the lives of young women — of people — are spot on.

I refuse to give any spoilers away — it’s a gem!! Raw, real, sooo enjoyable!!!

5 easy star rating!!!
Read all of Rufi Thorpe’s books!!

This book was an absolute train wreck (in a good way?) and I couldn’t look away. Rufi Thorpe is one of my favorite writers. She writes relationships and dialog between teens and adults better than any other author I’ve read. She so perfectly captures the delusion of being young and naive in a frustratingly real and hilarious way.

This is a quirky, coming-of-age story with flawed characters and an outlandishly original storyline. It’s not for everyone, but I personally enjoyed most of it and couldn’t put it down.

I was influenced by a BookToker to read this book, and I think if I had actually spent more time reading the blurb about it I may have reconsidered.. I mean, OnlyFans and TikTok and WWE??- it sounds off the wall and weird and it WAS off the wall and weird but in a delightful way. I have truly never read anything like it.

Margo is a 19 year old junior college student who gets knocked up by her kinda skeevy married older college professor. Struggling to make ends meet and confronted with being unable to provide for her new baby, she takes to creating content on OnlyFans. She is supported in these efforts by her previously absent father, Jinx, who is an ex-WWE wrestler and heroin addict.

This book found a small tender button I didn't know I had and kept pushing it. Reading the premise, you may think it will be light and ridiculous, and at times it absolutely was, but it also wove in an insightful commentary on the judgments we make as humans and how freakin' impossible it is to be a woman and mother. I also love LOVED these characters- they stressed me out, they made me roll my eyes, they disgusted and disappointed me, and I loved them anyway. I am so glad I found this book. Rufi Thorpe has a new fan.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for sending me an ARC of this wonderful book.

‘What kind of truth would require this many lies to tell?’

I absolutely tore through this book, I didn’t want to put it down because I felt such a connection to the characters that I wanted to see what would happen next. I especially liked the relationship between Margo and her father. I found the story very moving and appreciated some of the more meta bits that looked at writing and storytelling itself. There was some really stunning language and I found myself highlighting lots of passages. The last line in particular blew me away.

This book was delightfully ridiculous, and I was a little surprised at how much I actually loved every bit of it! With well-developed characters that you can’t help but fall in love with and a completely addicting writing style, I can definitely see this one appealing to a large audience, as it seems to bring a little something for every type of reader.

In terms of a quick plot summary of this coming-of-age story, stick with me here: the narrative follows Margo, a twenty-year-old who becomes pregnant after a brief affair with her community college English professor. She's determined to keep the baby and make an independent life for herself, but like many 20-year-olds trying to make it on their own, she ends up struggling - she has an infant, lives in an apartment with roommates, and gets fired from her job. But eventually Margo comes to realize the money-making potential in becoming a content creator on OnlyFans (sort of a pornography-adjacent social media type site, so take that as you will - while there are certainly body parts mentioned, the prose isn’t overly crude), and in comes her ex-pro wrestler father to help, and the shenanigans ensue from there.

Despite a premise that may sound a bit bonkers, it was an incredibly endearing, heartfelt and human story. The whole novel was so compulsively readable in how it was written, and I think that part of that had to do with the unique way that the author alternated the narration between first person and third person from time to time. Overall, the prose was darn funny and kept me completely entertained, but at the same time had such well-drawn characters, especially in Margo and her father Jinx, that made me fall hard for them from start to finish. It was truly a delight to watch Margo grow and develop through the pages in a mature way.

I was initially drawn to this book because it was blurbed by Kevin Wilson and I absolutely love all of his work - although it wasn’t quite the same off-beat type of quirky that he brings to his stories, it was uniquely quirky and funny in its own way, and I think any fans of Kevin Wilson will also love this one. With a perfect balance of hilarity and life lessons, I feel like this book will be a crowd-pleaser this summer. Such a fun gem of a read, and I'll definitely be exploring the author's backlist!

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

In this hilariously funny novel, Margo is nineteen years old when she has a brief fling with her married English professor and finds herself pregnant. She’s under no illusions that he’s a good guy who’ll help financially—if she goes through with the pregnancy, she’s on her own. As the daughter of a Hooter’s waitress and a pro-wrestling, absent father, she’s always been on her own. She’s smart but didn’t have the money to go to a good college. When people say that she’s going to ruin her life, she thinks she means that she won’t be able to continue at community college. She doesn’t understand the financial impact, and that more affordable daycare happens during the day, not the shifts she works at a bar at night.

She gets fired from her job, her roommates can’t study with a baby screaming half the night and leave. Scrambling for cash, she experiments with OnlyFans. When her father comes to stay with her, he can help with rent and childcare, and he uses his knowledge of professional wrestling to help her build a fan base on OnlyFans and TikTok.

The author touches on some challenging subjects with understanding and humor. I enjoyed this.

This was one of the most creative realistic fiction books I’ve ever read. I’d love to know how Thorpe came up with this plot line. It was a very refreshing and understandable view of Only Fans and related information. It seemed like a realistic representation of making money on the app. Margo built basically a business out of this endeavor, including strategic planning and marketing. Margo is hilarious and much of the story brings laughter while not shying away from serious topics. It will bring joy to many fans.

I just finished Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe and felt that this novel was all over the place. I found the changes in narrative voice confusing and the premise that Margo got pregnant by her college professor glossed over to be concerning, as well as the best option that she could find for work was to be a sex worker? I felt she was uncomfortable with her choices, with her relationship with her mother (and even with her father) and her living situation. The best part of the book was the penis descriptions using Pokemon characters! This book had a few funny moments, but just wasn't for me. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles
Pub Date: June 11, 2024
4/5 ✩
I truly can’t remember the last time a book hooked me as quickly as this one did. Within the first 5 pages I knew this would be at least a 4 star read for me. I laughed, cried, cringed, and broke out in nervous sweats (several times).

This story follows a young college student named Margo who finds herself in an inappropriate relationship with her (married) college professor that results in pregnancy. Very quickly she realizes how difficult it is to raise a
child alone, especially when you’re ill-prepared. When she can’t find childcare and is subsequently fired from her job, she then takes to OnlyF@ns in the hopes of being able to care for her baby and support them financially at the same time. We watch her navigate the struggles of being a single parent, the judgment of being in sex work, and the consequences that can come with it.
Margo is an incredibly relatable character and I truly empathized with her. As a mother myself, I could see that all she wanted was to be a good mother to Bodhi and provide for him, but life kept getting in the way at every turn. I loved the commentary not only on the stigmas of sex work and how it can impact someone’s life as a result, but also the lack of social structures in place to help mothers. This was one of the most unique stories I’ve ever read and maybe a little out of my comfort zone, but it was thoroughly entertaining and I have 0 regrets after reading it!

I loved this book. I loved Margo and all the weird and charming characters this book brought to life. I loved the shifting of first and third-person narration (its confusing at first, but bear with Thorpe -- she knows what she's doing).

We meet Margo as she brings home her baby to her apartment for the first time. Margo has an affair with her professor, and ends up becoming pregnant with her son, Bodhi. Shortly after Bodhi's birth, Margo is fired from her waitressing job because she doesn't have childcare, two of her roommates move out because they can't stand living with a newborn, and her mother is dating a man who doesn't know that Margo even has a baby.

It's with this backdrop that we embark on our journey with Margo. Her father, Jinx, a washed-up pro wrestler, who had Margo during an affair with her mother, Shyanne, who has been in and out of her life has turns up at Margo's doorstep, recently divorced and trying to get clean. It is because of Jinx that Margo makes a lot of decisions throughout the book. While he isn't a central figure in her life before Bodhi, he plays a pivotal role as Margo transitions into motherhood and making a career for herself. Jinx is the reason that Margo starts exploring OnlyFans, why Margo is able to fight for Bodhi, and inevitably why Margo finds herself in a difficult situation with Bodhi's father. Both of Margo's parents are infuriating, loveable, and flawed. I loved seeing the development of Margo's view of both of them as she cares for her own child on her own.

This is my first Rufi Thorpe novel and I loved it so much. Her descriptions of certain things are so freaking funny. For instance, of Margo's first impression of her mom's boyfriend's house where she describes his walls as having the "texture of psoriasis" really got me. I don't know why.

I also need to mention how much I loved the wrestling aspect of this book. My older brother was a huge WWE (at the time it was called the WWF) fan and I was, by the laws of little sisters, also a fan. This was a fact that I tried to hide (as I'm sure you can guess, it was decidedly very uncool for a 9 year old girl to watch wrestling) but my brother would bring it up to embarrass me at any point in time he deemed necessary. I would hide under the covers when the Undertaker came on the scene, and when we recently went on family vacation to Clearwater, my husband and kids were unimpressed with my hopes of getting a sneak of Hulk Hogan.

Five easy stars. A unique gem -- preorder it!

I really really really loved this book. I loved Margo, I loved Jinx, I loved Bohdi. Margo becomes pregnant with her married English professor's baby. Despite everyone telling her otherwise, she decides to keep the baby and raise him alone. After getting fired from her waitressing job because of lack of child care, she starts an OnlyFans to support herself and her son. Her father, a former professional wrestler named Jinx, moves in with her after getting out of rehab, and he helps with child care and rent.
Margo is one of my favorite characters I've read in a long time; She is relatable and funny, she's smart while also showing her age & naivety, and at the end of the day all she wants is what is best for her son. The book does switch between first and third person POVs, which was confusing at first, but once I got used to the way it was written, and figured out why it was written that way, I actually really loved it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Margo's Got Money Troubles in exchange for my honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Press for this ARC! I thought that this book was entertaining. It took me a bit to get into this book but once I did, I found myself looking forward to picking it up and reading. I really enjoyed that the characters in this book felt real. They faced (mostly) real problems and adversities that many others tend to face. It showed the necessity of being scrappy in the face of money troubles.

It's been a while since I've stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish a book just because I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next but Rufi Thorpe's MGMT did it. It is funny and insightful, and it deals with some serious issues without a preachy undertone. Margo and her friends and family felt so real, it was easy to understand the bad choices they made and root for them to do better. It's a hopeful read and I think it will be a great summer read.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC copy, now I'm off to read Rufi Thorpe's back catalog.

Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe
I don't know how I feel about this book.
What I like:
The plot is interesting: a 19 year old gets seduced (kinda) by her English teacher, decides to have the baby, starts an Only Fans to earn money, and is mentored by her professional wrestling dad in self promotion and business.
The character of Margo was nuanced, matured over time, and was generally interesting. I said she kinda gets seduced because the whole time she is torn between apathy and affection for her professor.
I, reluctantly, loved the character of Jinx (the wrestler dad) even when he did things that also made me hate him.
JB! And the writing he and Margo did.
A new mom myself, thus book accurately portrays the sheer affection, love, exhaustion, and fear of being a first time mom.

What I didn't like:
The one dimensional other Only Fans content producers.
The back and forth pov between 3rd and 1st person and its starts in 2nd person!?! I don't know that this conceit worked. It was maybe too meta. Like the author was trying to make a statement. At times it worked. But in the end there was no conclusion to the rhythm of it all.

So maybe if I keep thinking on it I will know how exactly I feel. It was an interesting read which I did in 1 day. Sex work is fair work and I appreciated the stance and thought provoking exploration of Only Fans.
3.5 stars. Because I vacilated so much.

Thanks to Net Galley and Harper Collins for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. I'm glad I got a chance to read it.

Big thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.
I've never read anything by Rufi Thorpe but after reading Margo's story, I plan to read all of her books. I loved this book. It took me a little while to get going but then I couldn't put it down.
Margo is one of those people who you want to smack and yell at because every decision she makes seems to be the wrong one...including having a baby at this stage of her life. However, the more you get to know her and her family, the more you get it. You can't help but cheer for her when she finally gets her financial situation figured out...and while it may be a very VERY unconventional way of making money, it's honest and she's doing what needs to be done for her family. All of it was so good..except the ending. I felt the last chapter was a little rushed and I really felt like some story lines needed to be tied up a little better (her mom! Ugh! Mark's mom! double ugh) but Margo is one of those characters that I can't help but cheer for.