Book of the Month Review + Coupon: June 2024

Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription box. Each month, five curators pick out their favorite new hardcover books, and you can choose which one you want to receive on the first of the month for $17.99/month. You can also add up to two additional books for only $9.99 each. (This box was named one of the best subscriptions for avid readers in the 2024 Subscription Box Awards.)

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the editorial guidelines to learn more about how we review boxes.)

My BOTM Pick for June: Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe , Hardcover Retail Value $25.20

Back of Book Summary:

As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet’s always known she’d have to make it on her own. So she enrolls at her local junior college, even though she can’t imagine how she’ll ever make a living. She’s still figuring things out and never planned to have an affair with her English professor—and while the affair is brief, it isn’t brief enough to keep her from getting pregnant. Despite everyone’s advice, she decides to keep the baby, mostly out of naïveté and a yearning for something bigger.

Now, at twenty, Margo is alone with an infant, unemployed, and on the verge of eviction. She needs a cash infusion—fast. When her estranged father, Jinx, shows up on her doorstep and asks to move in with her, she agrees in exchange for help with childcare. Then Margo begins to form a plan: she’ll start an OnlyFans as an experiment, and soon finds herself adapting some of Jinx’s advice from the world of wrestling. Like how to craft a compelling character and make your audience fall in love with you. Before she knows it, she’s turned it into a runaway success. Could this be the answer to all of Margo’s problems, or does internet fame come with too high a price?

Blisteringly funny and filled with sharp insight, Margo’s Got Money Troubles is a tender tale starring an endearing young heroine who’s struggling to wrest money and power from a world that has little interest in giving it to her. It’s a playful and honest examination of the art of storytelling and controlling your own narrative, and an empowering portrait of coming into your own, both online and off.

My Summary

Margo doesn't expect much from anyone. Growing up with a single mom with a gambling addiction plus a father whose life on the traveling wrestling circuit — and other family — made his appearances in her world entirely unpredictable, Margo has always known she'd have to do things on her own.

So when her married community college English professor slash boyfriend ditches her immediately after learning she's pregnant and doesn't want an abortion, Margo decides she'll just have to manage being a parent on her own too.

But when the 20-year-old she loses her job, and two of her three rent-paying roommates announce they've found another place where they don't have to live with a screaming newborn, Margo realizes she's running out of options.

So when her on-again-off-again dad Jinx shows up, retired from promoting wrestlers and fresh out of a stint in rehab for pain pills, she agrees to let him move in with her to help with rent and baby Bodhi while she figures out her next move.

That move turns out to be an OnlyFans account with a unique offering. Along with photos of her engorged breastfeeding boobs, Margo's fans are treated to Margo's own freshly penned creative stories about their dicks, likening them to Pokemon characters.

What follows is a story of a young single mom struggling to survive in a society that doesn't make things easy for moms — single or otherwise — and the family she cobbles together to help raise her son. At times heartbreakingly sad and other times gut-bustingly funny, Margo's Got Money Troubles is lovingly crafted by author Rufi Thorpe, who takes care to treat her main character with respect even as she details the disrespect baked into society for sex work and sex workers.

The Verdict

I have to cop to a bit of "judging the book by its cover" — or should I say by it's title? — with my June BOTM Club selection. When I spotted Margo's Got Money Troubles, my first thought was "oh girl, don't we all?"

When a quick Google revealed Thorpe's book had already been optioned for an Apple series starring Elle Fanning, I was intrigued enough to make it my June pick.

This book takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions not unlike the waves you ride when you — like main character Margo Millet — are a brand-new mother. Author Thorpe plays with her readers as she switches the perspective of her narrator from first to third and back again over and over throughout, because, as Margo tells us, “It is so much easier to have sympathy for the Margo who existed back then rather than try to explain how and why I did all the things that I did.”

Sympathy is indeed one of the many feelings Thorpe wrests from her readers as she puts Margo through a surprise pregnancy at age 20 and the indignities thrusts upon young, single mothers in America. There's anger too as Thorpe reminds us of the power dynamics involved in the relationship Margo had with her college professor, as we watch Margo banged about by the child welfare and court systems and her own single mother.

But Margo is someone you can't help but care about, and root for, as this single mom fights her way upward with decisions that are both unorthodox and (perhaps surprisingly for some) empowering.

Value — Was This Box Worth It?

The June BOTM Club list of book picks was hard to choose from, and I have a feeling I'll be adding some of the other picks to future boxes so I can finally read them. But the wild ride with Margo Millet was more than worth the choice.

As for the overall dollar value, you get a solid amount of savings with this pick. The BOTM Club starts at $17.99, depending on your chosen subscription, and this book is listed at $25.20 on Amazon.

Of course, the first month of a subscription is $9.99 with free shipping, so if this is your entree to a Book of the Month subscription, you come way out ahead.

The Cost: $9.99 + free shipping (This price is only for your first month).

Value Breakdown: This box costs $9.99, but the book I chose will retail as hardcover for $25.20, which means a discount of more than $15. (Remember...this is first month only). Even if you are looking at the $17.99 cost for one of the later months of your overall subscription, you're still saving!

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To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this book if you sign up today? Yes! But you will need to order it as an add-on.

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