Best Offer Wins: A Novel

A USA Today bestseller * A Good Morning America Book Club Pick * A Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick * An ELLE Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025 * A BookRiot Best Mystery/Thriller of 2025
“It starts out feeling pretty light and fun, but I promise you, you have no idea where this story is going.” -Taylor Jenkins Reid, recommended for her Must-Read Book of 2025 in TIME Magazine
An insanely competitive housing market. A desperate buyer on the edge. In Marisa Kashino’s darkly humorous debut novel, Best Offer Wins, the white picket fence becomes the ultimate symbol of success—and obsession. How far would you go for the house of your dreams?
Eighteen months and 11 lost bidding wars into house-hunting in the overheated Washington, DC suburbs, 37-year-old publicist Margo Miyake gets a tip about the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, slated to come up for sale in one month. Desperate to escape the cramped apartment she shares with her husband Ian — and in turn, get their marriage, plan to have a baby, and whole life back on track — Margo becomes obsessed with buying the house before it’s publicly listed and the masses descend (with unbeatable, all-cash offers in hand).
A little stalking? Harmless. A bit of trespassing? Necessary. As Margo infiltrates the homeowners’ lives, her tactics grow increasingly unhinged—but just when she thinks she’s won them over, she hits a snag in her plan. Undeterred, Margo will prove again and again that there’s no boundary she won’t cross to seize the dream life she’s been chasing. The most unsettling part? You’ll root for her, even as you gasp in disbelief.
Dark, biting, and laugh-out-loud funny, Best Offer Wins is a propulsive debut and a razor-sharp exploration of class, ambition, and the modern housing crisis.
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Readers say *Best Offer Wins* by Marisa Kashino is a fast-paced, roller-coaster read with compelling twists that keep many hooked. Reviewers agree the...
The main character's rage and psychosis was as relatable as it was predictable.
Warning: You won't like the main character. Sometimes this is enough for me to DNF a book, but in this case, I was curious to see how it all ended. I did laugh at some parts - at the sheer ridiculousness of it all - but keep in mind this is a seriously unhinged FMC who will let nothing get in the way of achieving her dreams. She is the queen and everyone else is a pawn in her game.
I'll be honest. I love unhinged behavior. In books. Not real life. Remember that.
Margot is absolutely cray cray, but you have to respect a woman with determination and a vision. All she wanted was the perfect house and the perfect life… and she was going to get it one way or another.
And listen, I have so many thoughts about that ending, but I’m going to behaaaaave and keep my mouth shut. Just know it was literal perfection 🤌🏽 If you’ve already read it though… please DM me because I need to talk about it lol
Writing style was perf, unhinged behavior was also perf.
This definitely lived up to the hype. I just wish it were a taaaaaaad bit more thrilly!
I'm sorry. This was really, really insipid and dumb. I was enjoying it for it's frenzy and the obsessive/compulsive behavior of the main character, Margo - who will literally stop at nothing to be the best offer on a dream home property she has learned is about to come on the market in the DC suburbs of Maryland. When things really became unrealistic, in the ends she would go through to get that house, that's when I checked-out out of the story. It's being hyped as darkly-humorous. But there was nothing funny about Margo's behavior.
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