At 20 years old, Margo is pregnant with her professor’s baby. When her professor wants nothing to do with Margo or her baby, Margo is determined to make it on her own. With zero job prospects, Margo turns to Only Fans and begins building a following. In an odd turn of events, Margo’s estranged biological father and former pro wrestler shows up at Margo’s door looking for a place to live for a bit. Margo and her roommate take him in and this odd cast of characters work together to provide a healthy environment to raise Margo’s baby in.

I loved this book so much! The character growth here had me rooting so hard for Margo and her untraditional family. There was so much heart in this story with such likable characters. Rufi Thorpe’s characters wrestle (no pun intended) with some heavy themes - abortion, sex work, drug addiction, and the challenges of being a worker and a mother. Thorpe’s commentary on these topics felt genuine and authentic to the characters. I cannot recommend this book enough!

(Thank you to @netgalley and the publisher for the advance digital copy!)

Margo is all alone in the world. Her mother is around but preoccupied with her new boyfriend. Her father is an ex-pro wrestler with addiction problems. So when Margo finds herself pregnant by her married college professor, she has to figure out how to live. When her roommates can't live with the baby anymore and move out, Margo turns to OnlyFans to make rent. What follows is a story of perseverance as Margo figures it all out. This started slow for me, but I loved watching Margo's character develop and grow as it progressed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC for review.

This was a quirky look at a young single mother, and how she manages to make her life work. Her estranged former wrestler father moves in with her. The majority of the book shows her making a living through OnlyFans. I'm probably a bit older than the readership for this book should be, so I often had trouble connecting with the characters. It felt like it took me awhile to get through this one. I think younger readers will love it.

Not my usual genre so I was looking forward to this one for a nice change of pace. Unfortunately it didn't work for me. I found it to be incredibly boring and I couldn't relate to any of the characters nor their poor decisions. My thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

MARGO’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES is a quirky coming-of-age story about 20-year-old Margo, daughter of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, who has been trying to make it on her own. During college, after an affair with her English professor, Margo finds herself a single young mom, strapped for cash, and on the brink of eviction.

Then, she learns about OnlyFans and joins, hoping to make ends meet and provide better for her small family. With the help of her dad, Jinx, and her roommate, Margo navigates the virtual world while juggling motherhood and the prejudice and judgment that comes with being a young single sex worker.

🌟WHY I LIKED IT:
-The book’s exploration of OnlyFans and using digital platforms to create one’s narrative felt very modern. It showcases the pros and cons of our highly digitalized lives and the challenges unique to social media. (However, I did not care for the vulgar comments and frequent use of the f-word.)

-Rufi Thorpe creates nuanced and flawed, yet likable characters (except I really did not like Shyanne). We see their struggles and shortcomings, but also how they strive to overcome them, only to repeat the cycle. I found the relationship between Jinx and Margo to be endearing and my favorite. I loved seeing the two help each other out, despite Jinx being absent for most of Margo’s life. Margo helping Jinx with his substance abuse problems made me all emotional.

-The book emphasizes that sex work, despite its stigma, is a form of work. While Margo faces intense judgment, she remains focused on providing for her son through her work. Additionally, the author’s note is crucial for understanding her fascination with OnlyFans and its rise during the height of COVID

-The themes of motherhood and mom guilt are universal. The constant assumptions and judgments we make about parents, especially moms, made me reflect on myself too. It highlights how easily we judge others, particularly online.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. (Am I in my white girl book era, lol?) Elle Fanning’s narration elevates this book.
Her narration was fantastic! Thank you for the ALC , @librofm!
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I was enthralled by this book, and while some scenes were wild, I couldn't help but cheer for Margo and Jinx!

*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

(3.5, rounded up to 4)

In "Margo's Got Money Troubles," Rufi Thorpe's captivating fourth novel, a college freshman learns the hard way that becoming a mother while still a student can indeed complicate life—until it doesn’t.

The story begins in the fall of 2017, when Margo first meets her English professor - the future father of her son, Bodhi. Thorpe cleverly has Margo switch between third and first person throughout the book, using third person to create distance from her more embarrassing mistakes. Readers may liken the novel's premise to "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow," but instead of video games, it's the world of online porn that plays a central role.

After giving birth to Bodhi, Margo struggles to balance childcare and work, which leads to her roommates moving out. Desperate for income, she turns to OnlyFans, where she discovers she has a knack for creating engaging content. Her humorous and creative approach, including Pokémon-inspired write-ups for tips, quickly gains her a following. Additional support comes from her father, Jinx, a wrestling icon fresh out of rehab, who moves in to help with Bodhi. Margo also reaches out to viral OnlyFans stars WangMangler and SucculentRose, who provide valuable guidance. Just as Margo starts to find her footing, Bodhi’s father re-enters the picture, demanding full custody and complicating her newfound stability.

"Margo's Got Money Troubles" features terrific characters, rich world-building, and thought-provoking themes about fiction and morality. Thorpe creates a compelling narrative of friendship, love, and family within the unique context of cyber storytelling, and delivers a satisfying and uplifting conclusion.

Margo’s Got Money Troubles, but she sure is entertaining. This book is hilarious, quirky, moving, and at times profound, exposing many of the issues and absurdities in our modern way of life along the way. Highly recommend.

Thank you Rufi Thorpe, William Morrow, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Me and all my friends absolutely adored this book. It’s about a young woman with struggles financially, and her way of overcoming them. But put in some light humor and and it is such a home run. Thank you for the opportunity to review early.

I loved the characters, the plot and how the dad inadvertently provided the inspiration for the Only Fans account but the geekiness of the Only Fans just seemed unrelatable to me and its success unbelievable which took me a little out of the story. Regardless I would read more Rufi. This one just hadn’t landed like I hoped.

I absolutely loved this one! I couldn’t get to it by publish date, so when I got to it shortly after I had to pick up the audiobook as well to keep reading because I didn’t want to put it down.

It’s rare when I finish a book where the main character does a lot of stupid things, but this one has my heart. My first Thorpe and won’t be my last

Margo's dad has retired from his WWE pro-wrestling career and endured another stint in rehab before he moves in with Margo, his bastard daughter, who's recently gotten pregnant by her married English professor and has decided to have the baby, despite living in a shared apartment with fellow college students, losing her job, getting less than no help from her mother, and having no idea what she herself is doing as a mother. So why not try her hand (and new mom body parts) as an OnlyFans creator? What could go wrong?
Themes: coming of age, new motherhood, controlling your own narrative, 
POV: we get the main character's POV from both first and third person -- "It's true that writing in third person helps me," Margo says. "It is so much easier to have sympathy for the Margo who existed back then than try to explain how and why I did all the things that I did."
Setting: mostly Margo's four-bedroom, one-bath apartment somewhere near the  Fullerton College campus in Fullerton, Calif. Margo lives geographically close to Disneyland, but her situation is emotionally distant from the Happiest Place on Earth
Timeline: present day, between now and when OnlyFans was created in 2016
I loved it. Why? Author Rufi Thorpe managed to successfully tie in pro wrestling, OnlyFans, and the Virgin Mary. Margo and her supporting characters were richly drawn. And as laugh-out-loud funny as this book was, there were also philosophically challenging questions posed. Margo grew to have empathy for others and what they'd created for themselves, but also for her past self and the choices she'd made.
"I like getting to be the me now watching the past me. It's almost a way of loving myself. Stroking the cheek of that girl with my understanding. Smoothing her hair with my mind's eye."
(The only thing I didn't like was that the douchey baby daddy wears a Duke sweatshirt in one scene where he's supposed to look extra-douchey and pathetic. Oof, that hurts a Blue Devil's heart.)
This is a five-star-plus read that I highly recommend
[Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

✨ Review ✨ Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe

Thanks to William Morrow for the gifted advanced copy of this book!

Okay, this book made me laugh so much, but also think really deeply about sex work and ethics and parenting. It's got:
1. Margo, a new mom
2. Mark, a gross professor who got her pregnant
3. Margo's new OnlyFans account
4. A pro wrestler dad who moves in and helps Margo think how to get subscribers to stay
5. Margo's ex-hooters waitress mom with her new pastor boyfriend
6. Margo's cosplaying roommate and new OnlyFans friends

Somehow this combination of characters (well, minus Mark) was a total delight in what Rufi Thorpe DELIVERED here. We laugh with Margo as she figures out OnlyFans and cry with Margo when her and the baby get the stomach flu. We empathize with characters as they learn and grow. We yell at Mark when he gets back involved in the story.

But aside from all this, the book challenges you to think about OnlyFans and cam girls and this type of on demand sex work that can be done in the home. Does doing this work inherently make you a bad parent or can you juggle both? I liked that this made me think.

Last, but not least, I'm obsessed with this gorgeous cover!

This book definitely lives up to the hype

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(4.25)
Genre: contemporary fiction
Setting: Fullerton, CA
Reminds me of: Green Dot
Pub Date: June 11, 2024

Unfortunately, I was bored for the majority of this book. I kept thinking to myself, "Where is this going? What am I reading towards?" In short, the synopsis is the entire story. Margo becomes unexpectedly pregnant by her college professor, decides to keep the baby, and starts an OnlyFans to have money for said baby. Nothing else happens. With a Goodreads rating of 4.03, I guess I expected more. I am definitely the outlier from all of these rave reviews, but it did not leave any impressions on my soul.

Margo...needed to grow up. Overall the story was enjoyable but their were issues in terms of pacing and character motivation. Her father was a flawed but compassionate man and her former professor was just immature. Some of the parts where she spoke about her ideas for the videos was a bit excessive and took away from the plot. It was an entertaining read but not memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

I absolutely adored this book - hands down one of my favorites of 2024. With a cast of quirky, misfit characters, this was such a unique book that I will not soon forget.

Pals! If you need marketing techniques and increased interactions on OnlyFans, Margo is going to give you run down. Poor girl, herself, had to do a crash course on OnlyFans to be able to provide her kid because she thought keeping the baby of her professor would be a good idea. To be fair, it was her decision as it should be, but I don't think as a 20 year old she did not really think consequences of having a child. Forget about everything, you need child care just to go to your classes Margo!

Margo has an interesting family: a mother about to marry a pastor and a father who was a WWE man with a complete family on the side. Margo's mother made the same decision her daughter made years later. She decided to keep Margo, revolve her life around Margo, and hope that AMrgo would made better decisions that she did. Love is nice and warm and fuzzy, until you need to pay the bills because the father has other kids and a wife to take care of. Margo got an idea on how to make money (idea came from her father, no surprise), but that decision was as life altering as her keeping Bodhi.

Sometimes people underestimate how resourceful 20 year olds can be even though they are still not to be trusted with major life decisions :) They know how to make their case, find similar situations, and do not take no for an answer. Margo was hilarious and she earned my respect. I had so much fun watching her power through all struggles.

I'm a big fan of Rufi Thorpe's writing, and this one did not disappoint. Through Margo, the protagonist, Thorpe gets into a compelling discussion of motherhood, sexuality, sex-work, and--most surprising of all--pro wrestling. The juxtaposition of Margo and her father, both of whom are using their bodies to make money, albeit in non-traditional ways, is very compelling.

I found this book like any other book I've read and I'm still thinking about it, not sure in a good or a bad way. I think Margo is so flawed that there were times I was SO annoyed with the decisions she as making and it felt like a lot of the time she was an unreliable narrator and the ending fell a little flat in my option and I left the book really wanting more for every character.

4.25//I really enjoyed Margo's Got Money Troubles. I loved the author's debut, Knockout Queen, but her sophomore novel just felt so much more put together, heartwarming, and humorous. The characters felt like they could be real and I enjoyed much of the comedic relief throughout. Despite her dumb decisions I was rooting for Margo and I am happy nothing *too* bad happened to her; it's refreshing to have characters where things go right for them on occasion.

This book was unlike anything I had ever read before! It explored hard topics while also being funny and reverent. The book could have been very depressing and yet somehow was so uplifting, Cant wait to read what this author writes next!