Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

“House hunting is a special kind of hell.”

Ahh, I need more books like this in my life!! Utterly BRILLIANT. If you’ve ever bought a house, then you’ll know how infuriating and stressful it can be… but this book crosses into unhinged territory when Margo sees her dream home. And she just has to have it, no matter the cost… It’s a chaotic read and I just adored it! I’m so happy to be sharing my review of Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino!

About the book

How far would you go to get the perfect home?

There was a time when Margo thought she knew. But that was before a soul-destroying eighteen months of house-hunting hell.

Now she’s not sure. Her life, her marriage, her family, her career are dangerously out of control and all she needs is a new home to get them all back on track.

So when the ideal house comes up, desperate measures are called for. A little online stalking. Some sneaky surveillance of the property in question. Befriending the owner. All reasonable enough, right?

But soon it’s clear that nothing is off limits, because when your best offer might not win, then you just need to do what it takes…

The beginning

Oh YES… now this was an easy book to binge! That first chapter sucked me in straight away and I was obsessed with Margo’s attempts to secure her forever home with her husband, Ian. She’d had months and months of hell; being outbid on some lavish properties, some at the very last moment, was driving her to insanity. Her obsession with finding their dream property was clear very early on, and I could sense this book might lean a little into unhinged territory… And I was so ready. When her estate agent, Ginny, gives her a heads up on a property before it’d even been listed, it felt like fate. It was her dream home. And she would do anything to get it this time. After a little ‘surveillance’ of the property itself, she loves it even more. And after ‘bumping’ into the owner, they hit it off and instantly become friends, and knowing this could put her in good stead seems to go to her head… Already, this whole thing was getting crazy. The author certainly doesn’t mess around in building up Margo’s character. The lengths she’d go to get this house would soon become clear…

“I’d be euphoric if I wasn’t terrified. If we can’t have this place, I will literally lie down and f*cking die.”

Margo is such a brilliant character and throughout it all, I couldn’t work out whether I liked her or not. She was very self-centred at times but this was certainly a part of her charm. She knows what she wants and will do anything to get it. I felt so much tension as she gets closer to Jack and Curt, owners of ‘The House’, and also their adopted daughter, Penny. Again, Margo’s charm makes them love her. She sprinkles a few little lies into their conversations to make them love her that little bit more. Things they can relate to. And when she gets that elusive invite to dinner at their house, she instantly accepts. Her husband thinks she’s going too far and isn’t comfortable with the whole thing, but he goes along with it to make her happy. The build up to walking inside this house for the first time was brilliant and the descriptions of this place even made me want to move in! I could visualise this house just as much as my own, and I couldn’t get enough. But Ian slips up mid-dinner. My stomach flipped as they discover what Margo is doing. Let the chaos begin 😈

The middle

I found Margo’s relationship with Ian to be very interesting. It’s rocky at times and I felt all her hard work to secure this house was one-sided, but there is some love there. However, it didn’t seem to be the kind of marriage you’d expect for a couple looking to find their dream home and hoping to start a family. I loved exploring this as time went on, as well as seeing Margo in her work environment (which, at the moment, felt just as rocky as her marriage.) Her character continued to be explored and I loved every tiny detail we learn about her. After her estate agent refuses to work with them moving forward, Margo realises there is no way they will get this house unless she takes further action. And after doing extensive research on Curt, she gets an idea. Surely a little blackmail wouldn’t hurt? Her plan was to dig as much dirt on Curt as she could find as a kind of leverage, and oh boy I was invested. I adored the pacing of this book and I couldn’t believe how things continued to escalate. But when you have your heart set on your dream property, nothing is off-limits… right?

“I have been racing against something, or toward something for as long as I can remember. Racing to grow up and get away. Racing against deadlines. Racing to make enough money. To start a family. To find the house. To feel like I’ve finally made it. To feel like I can finally just live.”

The amount of lies that spiral from Margo, not only to strangers but to those close to her, made me feelso nervous and on edge! But I had to admire her confidence and determination. She really was putting her all into this. Her deep dive into Curt’s background leads her to a girl named Dottie Ross. Dottie’s story was as upsetting as it was infuriating, and even I wanted revenge on this man at this point! Her story was the perfect angle Margo needed to bring Curt to his knees. By this point, this all felt so much more than Margo getting her dream home. Her life begins to crumble before her very eyes. Things start to go wrong for her, yet again. Not only is her husband doing the dirty with a younger woman, but Dottie does her homework and realises Margo is not being entirely truthful, resulting in her refusing to help any longer. This obsession was morphing into revenge on multiple fronts and it was wonderfully unhinged. I knew things were going to get intense as we reached the ending chapters, and I was desperate to see whether Margo gets what she wants…

The end

We know Margo is a strong woman. And I’d learnt that whatever sh*t she’s going through, she will twist it to her advantage. So when her husband says he’ll do anything to fix his mistake after she confronts him, she makes him agree to put in an offer for the house. All this was so cleverly woven together, and at one point, I was confident the house would be theirs after all the work she’d put in, the people she’d threatened or lied to in order to get what she needed. But then, as it did before, her plan begins to crumble away. I loved how there was a constant exciting build up, then such dread as things go wrong. It was powerful and gut-wrenching, and even at this point, I was still toying with how I felt about Margo. One side of me desperately wanted her to get this house, but the other side of me would also be satisfied if she didn’t get everything she wanted! So basically, however this book ended, I knew I’d probably love it 😂 It was time for a new plan for Margo, and this would be the most shocking of all. I was not prepared for what was about to happen!

“No house, no baby. No house, no family. No house, no life.”

What did I just read?! The book is certainly unhinged af all the way through, but the ending was another level! It was incredible and so bloody dark. Gimme all the dark reads! I flew through those final chapters quicker than I’ve read anything in ages. It gets so much more unnerving and completely unexpected, but it’s so brilliantly executed. Margo’s final attempt to secure this house is explained with such meticulous detail and I was so impressed with how every tiny detail slotted together. This was a solid plan. And I was completely obsessed with watching it all unfold. I knew she had something like this in her, but wow. I loved how every character gets their ending, no matter how extreme, and I just adored the very end which gives us more to think about. And my mind just ran wild with it! This book really had everything I love; the characters, the plot, the atmosphere, the incredible writing. All of it worked together to create a story that will not leave my brain in a hurry. Domestic thriller fans, if you’re looking for something wild and little different from your norm, this one is it!

Overall thoughts

Best Offer Wins took me on the most chaotic ride of my life and I would absolutely go through it all again in a heartbeat. I need more unhinged characters like Margo in my life! After eighteen months searching for her forever home with her husband and being outbid at every last hurdle, Margo finally finds her dream home. She needs this house. She’s certain it will solve all her problems. That it will fix her life, her marriage, her career. She knows she will do absolutely anything to make it her own. And oh boy, does she deliver.

This was so bloody dark. What Margo wants, Margo gets. Her confidence, her determination, her no-f*cks-given attitude to getting her own way completely sucked me in from start to finish. Every character we meet plays such a huge part in this plot, and even though most of them aren’t likeable at all, it just worked. I loved being unable to predict Margo’s next move. I loved knowing that she is, in fact, capable of literally anything. Her plotting to get her offer accepted on this house, by any means necessary, kept me coming back for more.

This book is a debut and I am honestly so blown away by Marisa’s captivating voice, her ability to write such a gripping book and bring a character like Margo to life in the way she has. Phenomenal. An addictive, chilling domestic thriller that is incredibly clever, with the perfect sprinkle of dark humour for good measure. I’m dying to read whatever comes next from this author!

Huge thanks to the author, Marisa Kashino, and the lovely team at Doubleday for my proof copy! You can grab you copy of Best Offer Wins right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Marisa over on Instagram for more updates!

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