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Paradise Pawn: A Novel
Not yet published
Expected 14 Jul 26A dazzling debut novel about best friends, adolescent longing, and the Florida pawn shop that promises to make their dreams come true—if it doesn’t break them apart first.
Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.
With incredible heart and wit, and based on Richardson’s own experience working behind the counter of a pawn shop, Paradise Pawn navigates current-day themes of trust, familial love, female friendship, and class differences, and asks us how far we would go to protect the ones we love most.
Teenage best friends Jackie and Kayla can sell anything. Alongside their fathers, they work at a pawn shop in Cherry Beach, Florida, handling everything from luxury jewelry to chainsaws and more. When the girls learn that Kayla’s family can’t afford a private school opportunity that Jackie’s can, Jackie becomes distraught about losing her best friend. With their sharp minds but youthful lack of foresight, they scheme a way to embezzle money from the pawn shop. As the hot Florida summer unfolds, the girls steal thousands of dollars from the shop. But when their heist is discovered, Jackie is faced with a situation that no amount of negotiating or charisma can fix.
With incredible heart and wit, and based on Richardson’s own experience working behind the counter of a pawn shop, Paradise Pawn navigates current-day themes of trust, familial love, female friendship, and class differences, and asks us how far we would go to protect the ones we love most.
Kindle Edition
Expected publication July 14, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 7, 2026
This little novel was simply perfect, not one word extra, missing, or out of place. It’s a realistic, sad, funny, sweet, edgy portrait of an adolescent’s growing pains and coming of age process, further complicated by the gender and class dynamics she witnesses within her incredibly vivid Florida beach town pawn shop setting.
Protagonist Jackie and her best friend Kayla are at the younger and older edges of 14 respectively, both in terms of chronological age and emotional maturity. The girls have an intense sister-like connection, having known each other since infancy and having grown up working alongside one another at the Paradise Pawn franchise managed by their dads. Kayla comes from a family that struggles to make ends meet, but is large, warm, and loving, while Jackie, who never knew her now-deceased mother, is being shepherded through adolescence (with increasing trepidation, but to the best of his ability) by her heartbreakingly devoted single dad, Devon.
The girls are each somewhat worldly wise in their own way from growing up working at the pawn shop, which has essentially served as a front row seat in Human Psych 101 and is also positioned directly at the social and economic intersections of a Florida beach town: the richer tourists, the less-rich tourists, the rich locals, and the poorer locals, who mostly work in the tourism economy. The book opens the summer before the girls are meant to start high school, which they hope will be at St. Bridget’s, the fanciest option and a beacon representing the type of wealthy, secure future they crave after witnessing years of the financial desperation that draws so many customers to Paradise Pawn.
All of the characters in this book are fantastically drawn and again, incredibly realistic. Jackie is a young teen that many of us have known: sensitive, passionate, opinionated, loving, loyal, a bit needy, a bit insecure, at times frustrated and frustrating, and both excited by and fearful of changes that are in process or yet to come. She gives very Scout Finch, Laura Ingalls, teenage Ramona Quimby vibes. I think the portrayal of Devon and his relationship with Jackie is one of the best depictions I’ve seen of single dad parenting. The author also fully maximizes the evocative pawn shop and beach town setting; there is lots of sensory detail, and it’s all incredibly interesting, integrated with, and relevant to the story. This novel is economical in length and scope, but I feel like it really took me on a coming of age journey.
This is one of those books it’s really hard to imagine someone not liking — like, I might have been a little personally worried about my soul if I hadn’t liked it. I rarely get to enjoy something so moving without also feeling it’s too saccharine, but this book has sass and edge aplenty, and there are tensions and stakes that carry you through. I should certainly hope that this book will be set out on the front table of all Florida and beach town bookstores. (I don’t actually know if pawn shops sell books!) Who is this new author Meg Richardson? — I want more from her! Highly recommended. Loved it.
My huge thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Zando/Tin House for the ARC. Paradise Pawn is expected on July 14, 2026.
Protagonist Jackie and her best friend Kayla are at the younger and older edges of 14 respectively, both in terms of chronological age and emotional maturity. The girls have an intense sister-like connection, having known each other since infancy and having grown up working alongside one another at the Paradise Pawn franchise managed by their dads. Kayla comes from a family that struggles to make ends meet, but is large, warm, and loving, while Jackie, who never knew her now-deceased mother, is being shepherded through adolescence (with increasing trepidation, but to the best of his ability) by her heartbreakingly devoted single dad, Devon.
The girls are each somewhat worldly wise in their own way from growing up working at the pawn shop, which has essentially served as a front row seat in Human Psych 101 and is also positioned directly at the social and economic intersections of a Florida beach town: the richer tourists, the less-rich tourists, the rich locals, and the poorer locals, who mostly work in the tourism economy. The book opens the summer before the girls are meant to start high school, which they hope will be at St. Bridget’s, the fanciest option and a beacon representing the type of wealthy, secure future they crave after witnessing years of the financial desperation that draws so many customers to Paradise Pawn.
All of the characters in this book are fantastically drawn and again, incredibly realistic. Jackie is a young teen that many of us have known: sensitive, passionate, opinionated, loving, loyal, a bit needy, a bit insecure, at times frustrated and frustrating, and both excited by and fearful of changes that are in process or yet to come. She gives very Scout Finch, Laura Ingalls, teenage Ramona Quimby vibes. I think the portrayal of Devon and his relationship with Jackie is one of the best depictions I’ve seen of single dad parenting. The author also fully maximizes the evocative pawn shop and beach town setting; there is lots of sensory detail, and it’s all incredibly interesting, integrated with, and relevant to the story. This novel is economical in length and scope, but I feel like it really took me on a coming of age journey.
This is one of those books it’s really hard to imagine someone not liking — like, I might have been a little personally worried about my soul if I hadn’t liked it. I rarely get to enjoy something so moving without also feeling it’s too saccharine, but this book has sass and edge aplenty, and there are tensions and stakes that carry you through. I should certainly hope that this book will be set out on the front table of all Florida and beach town bookstores. (I don’t actually know if pawn shops sell books!) Who is this new author Meg Richardson? — I want more from her! Highly recommended. Loved it.
My huge thanks to the author, NetGalley, and Zando/Tin House for the ARC. Paradise Pawn is expected on July 14, 2026.
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December 9, 2025Ha ha ha why am I crying so hard???? I loved it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Paradise Pawn covers puberty at its finest: friendship, family jobs, Florida sunshine, and way too many laughs to even ponder putting this one down right from the start. We follow Jackie and her friend Kayla, who she considers the hotter and more extroverted version of herself she has known since age three. The two meet after their dads work at a pawn shop together, employed under a ruthless quack named Rob. Paradise Pawn displays its chapters at first into pieces you can buy at the best pawn shops around, and then diverges into two besties trying to figure out teenaged life and going to different schools after spending their lifetimes together. There is just enough glimpse of the parents and families to get a good look at how quirky our imperfect characters are. Despite some obvious holes in the pacing, I thought this one was a hoot and really enjoyed it if you're into coming of age novels. Thank you to Netgalley and Zando/ Tin House for the advanced eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I fell in love with this book and the characters. A coming of age tale on friendship and class and everything that comes with teenage girlhood. This was such a realistic and relatable look at what we do for those we love even if it’s wrong. I absolutely loved Jackie and her innocence but also her wisdom. I loved how easy of a read this was and I truly loved the ending. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews