I flew through this book!! I loved the creepy movie set setting where fiction and real world start to intertwine and the “can’t trust anyone” vibes completely take over!! This was the most bingeable thriller I’ve read in a while!! Totally recommend!!

I struggled with this book. It felt a bit convoluted and hard to follow. The dual storylines and the book within a movie within a book proved to be too complicated for me. I’m also not a big fan a gaslighting as a trope so there’s that as well. Still I finished it because Catherine Ryan Howard is an auto-read author for me, and this one book hasn’t changed that.

I received an ARC copy of Run Time just as I was entering a challenging stretch of my life and hit the biggest reading slump I've ever worked through (literally 3 months without finishing a single book). In hindsight, I wish I had powered through Run Time because I think it would've catapulted me out of that reading slump!

I'm a horror movie fan and a thriller reader (not to mention a Catherine Ryan Howard fan!) and this book just checked ALL of my boxes. It was interesting, suspenseful, convoluted (but in the BEST way), twisty, unreliable - so many verbs I love to experience when reading a thriller (or watching a movie for that matter). I did find one reveal a bit predictable but that in no way diminished the fun of reading.

Definitely recommend this one if you want a fast-paced original thriller, especially if you're a horror movie fan!

I love a good book within a book.... book. If you like that aspect of storytelling, you will love this one. My favorite thing about this story was the extremely creepy atmosphere. A deserted area in the woods, that's the stuff my nightmares are made of. I was not overly surprised by the suspense aspects of this one and that took a way a little of the heart pounding, page turning in fury excitement. Overall though, it's a good thriller and I definitely recommend this author.

The chaos in this book was completely enthralling. I couldn't pick up if everything was in our protagonists head or if things were being orchestrated. Makes for a good thriller

The narrators were great, however they could not save this novel. It was way too long. Too much of an intense build up for the silly ending that was revealed. I’m sad because I have enjoyed other novels by Howard. This one not a lot. Moderate cursing.

I loved this unique thriller! Howard’s writing is amazing with this story within a story.

Thank you, Catherine Ryan Howard, Blackstone Publishing & Netgalley for my copy! All opinions are my own.

TW: Gaslighting, Injury/injury detail, Toxic friendship, Murder, Death, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Blood, Violence
3.75 stars
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A book, within a book, within a book. At first, Run Time may seem a tad confusing but once you start to iron out the details and figure out what is real, and what is part of the book it starts to make more sense. At one point in her career Adele Rafferty had it all, now, she has a hard time finding a job after an unfortunate event that happened while on set of her last film. Out of the blue she gets a call from a number back home, and it seems to be the opportunity of a lifetime - she's being offered the lead in a film without even having to audition. The only thing? She has to sign a NDA as the film is super hush hush, and the filmmakers don't want anyone knowing about the film.

Adele has been getting cryptic calls and messages warning her not to go to the set as it'll put her in danger, she chooses to brush it off as she needs the money. As soon as she arrives on set things seem a little off, none of the crew is there to greet her, other than Donal, who has just been hired on as well. The second she does meet the crew they are all distant towards her and basically act like she's not there, it doesn't help that the director also seems to have a specific way of doing things but no one is questioning it. Soon after her arrival she starts to find clues that perhaps someone had been there before her, things start happening to her that were in the book, and with the texts she's been getting things just don't add up. As she starts to question everything, it's clear that she's pushing her luck.

The story takes a turn and it soon becomes a story about survival as it appears that she's in danger, the pacing was so fast and I just wanted to get to the bottom and figure out what was truly going on. At one point I didn't know who I could trust as the story spiraled out of control, I really liked how parts of the book were added to break up the plot and give you a look at what was to come!
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I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I cannot say enough good things about Run Time! The plot, characters, and ending were absolutely brilliant! Catherine Ryan Howard is one of the best psychological thriller authors out there! I cannot wait to read more from her!

I really enjoyed this quick paced thriller. The setting of a movie set was absolute perfection and it was so spooky. I got Friday the 13th vibes from it which I loved. I suspected everyone but did somewhat figure out the ending so I was a little underwhelmed with it. I love this author and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

I am a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Howard. I have read all of her books and was SO EXCITED to receive this one. In the end, I think this book was trying to do way too much. The author has a history of telling these meta type stories with books within books and interesting writing styles. This one felt a bit too much like inception to me. The book and the play and then real life made it a little difficult to follow which one I was reading about. I kept getting the plot lines mixed up and forgetting which detail belonged to which story. Overall I didn't dislike it, but it felt like a lot of work to fully enjoy it.

Pop that popcorn and get your biggest pillows because you’re about to be hiding behind them and stuffing your face kernel after kernel. 🍿 This book (review) is the equivalent to watching a scary movie.

🎥 You’re about to take a lead role and get your big break. Sure it’s last minute, but the pay is too good to pass up. You’re totally good with the script being horror because nothing scares you. Filming location: a remote cottage in the woods… perfect. A little destination filming! Thunder quakes, and rain pelts against the window. This is the perfect reading ambiance isn’t it? Speaking of which, why don’t you find a good audiobook to listen to. Oh no. Phones dead? Seriously, you just charged it didn’t you? That’s fine. I’m sure you won’t need it to call for help or anything. Oh wow… well this is classic. The power has gone out. No worries, you can go check the circuit breaker upstairs in the dark attic. Wait, wait. Stop. Listen. What was that noise? Did you hear that ginormous thud? Almost like a body falling to the floor? Better go check it out…. 👀 🔦

This book was unique, interesting, and fun to read. While I enjoyed reading it for personal reading, I will not be adopting it for my classroom. Thank you to the publisher!

It was a very twisty read which had both Tanisha and I incredibly gripped, we both binged it in an evening!! To say it was twisty is an understatement, it did not disappoint! There were so many plot twists in this one that I didn’t expect.

DNF. I remember hearing that this book is complicated but worth getting through, but the deeper I got, I just never felt like I hid a stride. I wish it started with more excitement then took a step back or something. Just too hard to get through with so little happening.

I thought that the premise for this book was promising but I DNF'd about 25% of the way through. It's a long book and i feel like it started out very slow and was dragging on already. However, I would definitely be interested in readying something else from this author.

After reading The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard, I was an immediate fan! So I knew I needed to give this one a try. And there were several things I did like about Run Time: the movie set, the premise of events mirroring the movie script, and the description of sexism and how terribly women can be treated in the movie industry.

However, I do think there was too much going on in this book and there seemed to be separate plot lines (and both didn't seem necessary). I think it would've been stronger if the author focused on one and developed it more.

Overall, I think this was a decent popcorn thriller, and I think many others will enjoy it! Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the gifted copy

A mind bending combo of a book within a film within a book. Twists popping up from everywhere with plenty of humour and fun to match.

Full review to come.

I'm a sucker for any horror story that happens on a horror movie set, so this immediately appealed to me. There were so many twists that they almost doubled back to not being twists at all, but it was a very enjoyable read that focused on atmosphere and spooky ambiance.

the story is a wild ride, even if it's a bit out there, it just works. The structure is a bit like another of her books, ‘the nothing man,’ in a sense that this is a story within a story, with both plot lines impacting and intertwining with each other.

overall, a very solid and decent addition to CRHs bibliography. i love how consistently her mystery/thrillers hit the mark every time!
This frightening book had me on edge the whole time. Creepy cool concept. CRH I don’t know how you come up with this stuff but thanks for the wild ride!