[Review] Buyer Beware - Catherine Ryan Howard

Summary: If these walls could talk, they’d scream...

When Ellie moves to 1 Delaney Row, she hopes to find a fresh start—a place where no one knows her name, her history, or her secrets. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets—and the people determined to keep them are watching her.

As Ellie starts to unravel the house’s disturbing backstory, coming closer to the shocking mystery at its center, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well.

A puzzle box of a thriller full of mind-boggling twists and turns, Buyer Beware is a chilling exploration of the dark secrets that any house can hold—and of the lengths we’ll go to start over. (Pub Date: Jul 28 2026)

Ellie moves into a house she finds out has been labeled as a murder house. More than once, she feels there's someone trespassing, but she doesn't know who or why. There have been stories, and yet she still can't find anything concrete to know who this person could be, if they really exist. And maybe it's not the house but her they are after.

 

This book is told in three points of view, each person in a different year, one of them being Ellie in the present. It doesn't take long to figure out what connects them, but for some time I couldn't keep up with who did what. They are very different characters in different situations too. One is a young woman starting college and regretting all she's given up so she could stay with her boyfriend. The other, a woman in her thirties, who is finally open to love someone. And finally, Ellie and her murder house. 

 

I think the mix of genres didn't work for me. To me, the women's fiction part played a bigger role in this story than the thriller itself. But it's not that I have a problem with the genre, a lot of thrillers use it too and they do it well. My problem is that the development of that was too weak, it felt like noise while I was really interested in the mystery part. To make things worse, you are supposed to be bothered by the events in these women's lives, so on top of interrupting the good part, it makes you uncomfortable. And once you understand where it's all going, it makes for an unsatisfactory conclusion too. 

 

You do understand the need for all those stories— though I would have used less side characters to make it easier for the reader—, even if some explanations were a little too overdone, nothing too impossible, they just make you question why the characters would make such a decision. I wasn't a fan of the ending either because it still didn't feel like it was all solved, but it was one of the better ones possible. If I had to pick its best aspect, they were the plot twists, some were very good, and the good measure of unexpected.

 

I recommend it for people who like a heavier plot mixed in with their thriller. Or even for fans of women's fiction who'd like some thriller seasoning. 

 

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 3 out of 5.