Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rupi Thorpe

 

Adulting hasn't turned out like Margo expected.  When her English professor wanted to start an affair, she wasn't sure how to say no so agreed.  When she gets pregnant, he wants her not to have the baby but she decides to.  That's the good part of adulting; when Bodhi is born she finds a love that is more than anything she has ever experienced.  But being a single mom is no picnic.  Margo is broke and she gets fired from her waitressing job because she can't find child care and even if she did, it would cost as much as she could make.

Margo's parents never married.  Her mother, Shyanne, moves from one man to the next, looking for stability she never quite seems to find.  Her father, Jinx, is a former pro wrestler who had a wife and other family elsewhere.  He is a larger than life character but his life has been marred by his serial cheating and his opiate addiction caused by the injuries in wrestling.  

When Margo is about to get evicted, she knows something must change.  Two of her roommates are moving out leaving only Margo and Suzi to make the rent and Suzi is more broke than Margo.  Jinx comes to town, falls in love with Bodhi and decides to move in and help.  Margo finds a job online but it's porn adjacent, posting semi-nude photos of herself and gaining subscribers.  She has one subscriber, JB, who she starts an online relationship with that feels different than the rest.  But the professor has decided to file for custody and someone has turned her in to Social Services as an unfit mother.  Can Margo make everything work?

Rufi Thorpe has written a laugh out loud book in which the reader will fall in love with Margo.  No matter what the troubles that pile up, Margo faces them all heads on and refuses to give up.  She will do anything to make a better life for Bodhi and her intelligence and creativeness may take her far.  I loved so many of these characters.  Jinx is a larger than life character who loves Margo and Bodhi and does anything he can to protect them.  JB may be the perfect romance but can Margo afford the time for a committed relationship?  Margo herself is such a resilient, empathic character that one can't help but love her and root for her to make sense of it all.  This book is recommended for literary and women's fiction readers.