BOTM Monday: Best Offer Wins

Author: Marisa Kashino Title: Best Offer Wins Publisher: Celadon Books Date Published: 11/25/2025

Read Dates: 12/22/2025- 12/23/2025
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This was my Book of the Month club pick for December. 

Best Offer Wins is a single POV thriller told from the perspective of Margo. She's been trapped in a tiny apartment with her husband Ian for 18 months, and in that time, the two of them have lost 11 bidding wars in an intensely competitive housing market. When Margo catches wind of a potentially perfect home before it hits the market, she'll do anything to get it. When her initial attempt falls apart, she decides she won't let anything stand between her and the perfect house and perfect life that she wants.

This one was a wild ride! Margo is more than a little unhinged, and the lengths she is willing to go to in order to secure her dream keep the reader on a constant roller-coaster! This was a debut novel, so there is no backlist I can visit in order to read more, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing what else this author comes up with!

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.