Thank you for the ARC, NetGalley. This thriller was enjoyable at times, but also frustrating as I felt it could have had so much more. I don’t know, it just felt like it was missing something for me. But overall I did like parts of it.

The tagline for this book reads "Movie-making can be murder," but there's very little of either one involved in this story of an actress with a spotty career getting an opportunity that proves too good to be true. The immaturity of Run Time's big reveal is representative of the carelessness with which the author throws around tropes and contrives plot devices. Clearly, she knows the thriller genre and has powerful tools of the craft at her disposal, but interspersing the narrative with a confusingly parallel movie script (broken up by a confused, possibly unreliable narrator) makes this novel too gimmicky to be immersive or convincing. Despite the very adult trappings of the plot, the actual stakes are more fodder for a teen thriller than an adult horror novel, dealing in bruised feelings and fake affection rather than life and death. The conniving jealousy of a struggling Hollywood hopeful is too familiar to be interesting without some genuine creativity or insight. At one point, a character says that mysteries only exist because we don't have all the facts yet, and that's exactly what this story amounts to, in the end. Not much of a moviegoing experience in this decidedly uncinematic novel, the cool cover art is as far as it goes. Save your popcorn for a dumb shark movie this summer and walk away from Run Time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC.

Blacklisted Irish soap star Adele Rafferty gets a second chance at stardom when she receives an unexpected phone call to play the lead role in a horror film called Final Draft, set in Ireland years after she left and moved to LA. The catch? It’s very tight lipped so she has to sign an NDA and fly to an isolated and secluded location in the woods of Ireland within a day or two. She can’t tell a soul about the film, the director, or the location. The film is called Final Draft.

Kate is the main character and the character that Adele is playing, but this book also takes a meta approach by having the script also play out in between Adele’s experiences. Kate is also in a cabin reading a book that she found there called Final Draft, and she starts experiencing some weird occurrences when things happening to the main character, Karen in the fictional book, start to happen to Kate, the character.

As you may have guessed, Adele also starts to see the same parallels in her life as well. Karen from the book, Kate from the script, and actress Adele are all experiencing unexplainable creepy things.

Essentially, this book was very unique. It had multiple layers and was unnerving. It genuinely scared me at multiple points and it was an absolute page turner.

I love how Catherine Ryan Howard writes such unique thrillers that do not fit the mold. Just like in how The Nothing Man had a fresh take on fictional true crime stories, this psychological thriller had a fresh take on b-list horror movies.

Read this if you like:
🎥 Low Budget horror movies
⭐️ “Meta” stories/layered stories
🌲 The Blair Witch Project
📚 Big books (this is 520 pages!)

Even though this story was entertaining, bingeable, and thrilling, the ending was such a let down. It was predictable, and then had many pages of conversation explaining the big reveal. She didn’t show us, she told us, extensively. I liked some aspects of the ending, but ultimately after such a long and intense story, the ending was nothing short of a fall from grace. With that being said, I cannot give this book anything lower than 4 ⭐️ because it absolutely hooked me.

I absolutely recommend this to thriller lovers, and thank you so much NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for providing this arc to me in exchange for my honest opinion!

📅 This publishes on August 16, 2022!

I’m a fan! It’s probably unfair to compare Run Time to 56 Days (Catherine’s 2021 novel), but I can’t help myself. While 56 Days was five stars from me, Run Time is a solid 4. Her writing keeps me engaged and captivated. I enjoyed the story-within-a-story-within-a-story. I felt 56 Days was crafted with a little more intricacy, whereas Run Time was sort of more straight-forward thrills. Both great reads 👍

Thanks @blackstonepublishing and @netgalley for the eArc 🙏

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

“𝑰𝒕 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒄𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒔.”

Struggling Actress Adele Rafferty has been down on her luck and is about to give up acting all together when she’s called up out of the blue and asked to replace an original actress in the horror movie Final Draft. When she arrives the next day to set it’s very clear that something is off. First off, they are set up in the middle of nowhere in a cabin where there’s no cell service. She then realizes that there are only 8 crew members and she’s the only girl which sets off some warning bells that she chooses to ignore. When it starts storming one night and no one shows up to film she quickly discovers that she is all alone in the middle of nowhere with no cell signal literally trapped on the set of a secluded horror movie. As if this isn’t the set up for a horror movie itself things go downhill very fast for her and soon she’s running for her life.

I have a confession to make I love horror movies even the B rated kind of cheesy horror movies. So of course when I saw this book I just knew I would enjoy it. Run Time is a fast paced, twisty, atmospheric thrill ride. It alternates really between two stories Adele’s and the manuscript of Final Draft. So it’s basically like you get two stories in one and I’m here for it. Even though this one is a little bit longer it reads fast and I breezed right through it. I wouldn’t say this was scary but it was very creepy. This is my first read by this author and it definitely won’t be my last.

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Run time was absolutely phenomenal and I was so hooked that I couldn’t stop at all. The author maintained the panic mode throughout and the setting gave off this eerie vibes that I wouldn’t really recommend reading while all alone at night. It’s about Adele who gets a phenomenal movie role at the last minute and right from the minute she steps into the location that there is something off about it. She knows it,  she feels it but she cannot pinpoint what exactly it is. There is a movie shooting in a remote location in the woods, then there is the script for the movie and finally there is a book within the script. All those three feature a woman alone in the woods and some crazy things happening to this person. Can it really be a coincidence and and where did people vanish during the shooting? There is something strange going on and I literally could not take a break while reading this one. 

It was totally entertaining and I did guess who was behind the whole thing but it still had some amazing twists and definitely some creepiness to it. I have enjoyed the author's previous book Nothing man and I started this with high expectations and this totally lived up to it and even probably exceeded it actually. This was a binge read and I had a blast reading it. I'm definitely not going to be the person staying in a cabin in the woods after reading this book.

It felt like the readers had to follow three stories with similar premise and similar characters but the pacing was fast and it was super intriguing that I didn’t have any confusion about the characters. This might be the kind of book where people will have really mixed reactions but I have to say I for sure thoroughly enjoyed it and the author is definitely an author read auto by author for me from now on.

I quite like Catherine Ryan Howard's 56 Days so i was excited to read Run Time. Sadly, I found it half formed. Plot wise, it was more book within a book within a film. It felt like Plain Bad Heroines but not as well written. I think that it needed more time.

I am interested to see what Ryan Howard does next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

I am a huge fan of Catherine Ryan Howard's books, having read practically everything she has written to date. The "Run Time" blurb sounded very much what I like in a book, a smattering of horror, psychological thriller, set in Ireland, I was delighted. However, I found the plot of this book both confusing at times and a little boring if I'm honest. For the first 45% or so, nothing much happens, and also you are reading a script of a movie being made, which is about a horror book found in a cottage which is being re-enacted to the characters in both the script and also it seems, in real life. Confused? Yes I was too. I would have liked a little more action in the run up to the plot reveal, there are hints that something happened to Adele for her to run off to LA and quit acting but by 50% it still hadn't been revealed. Unfortunately not my favourite CRH book :(

A really enjoyable read and a fun concept for a book! I love horror movies so the fact that this was placed on the set of a horror movie was really cool!

The structure of Run Time is shocking and unique: something that should be the climax event begins way too early, leaving you wondering what else is going to happen next.

The mood is wonderful; even though I read the most of the book on a lovely, sunny afternoon, it transported me to a gloomy, wet winter night.

The fast-paced storyline also deftly and amusingly imitates the sensation of actually watching a horror movie. It's captivating, unpredictable, and a lot of fun.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: August 16, 2022
Best-selling author Catherine Ryan Howard returns with “Run Time”, a novel about the cost of wanting something too badly, and the price people are willing to pay for their dreams to come true.
Adele is an Irish born actress, who has fled to L.A after an emotional breakdown on the set of a TV show in Ireland has left her unemployed. Working as a hotel receptionist, Adele can’t turn down an offer to work on a top-secret production of the film “Final Draft”, even though it’s last minute. Even though she’s replacing someone who left the show under mysterious circumstances. Even though she keeps getting random text messages telling her not to go. So when she arrives in Ireland at the old cottage being used as the set, Adele quickly realizes something isn’t right. The cottage is very secluded, there’s no cell phone signal and definitely no Wi-Fi, and she is the only female in the entire cast and crew, of which there totals only a handful overall. But Adele needs the work and she needs to restore her reputation, but how much is she willing to ignore to be a star?
Howard is a phenomenal novelist, and I loved a lot of her previous works (56 Days and The Nothing Man to name a few), but “Run Time” was simply mediocre. I loved the creepy, rustic cottage in Ireland that made up the setting (and sure, maybe the “no cell signal, middle-of-the-night shoot schedule” had a cheesy horror movie vibe about it, but that’s why horror movies are so great, no?) but it took too long to get to any of the action.
The movie is loosely based on a novel also called “First Draft”, so this novel (“Run Time”) contains script segments from the movie Adele is acting in, a few passages from the novel “First Draft”, and of course the plot of “Run Time”(with different protagonists in all). So if you can keep all of that straight (which I admit, took some doing) you’ll end up with a plot that is entertaining enough to make you want to find out how it ends.
“Run Time” highlights the intriguing world of movie making (the good and the bad), which was interesting (to a point, but this part dragged on too long), and once the story gets going, I was pulled in. The characters were all suspicious, except for Adele, and the all-male crew were misogynistic perverts (purposely), which adds a feminist #metoo angle. The ending was only predictable if you’re a lifelong reader of this genre (like I am), but it still tied up all the plot points with a neat bow.
Although this is not one of Howard’s best, I am still an avid fan and will continue to read anything else she chooses to release into the world.

Adele is an actor who got her start on a famous Irish soap opera. She is searching for a fresh start for her acting career after a movie gone wrong in LA. She gets a job offer that she can’t turn down to be the lead star in an independent horror film being directed by someone well known. Before she knows it, she’s been flown out to the set’s location: an isolated cabin deep in the Irish forest. When things start to happen in real life that are supposed to be happening in the movie, Adele wonders what she has gotten herself into. With no cell service and an extremely small all-male crew, she has no one to depend on other than herself.

Run Time was my first book by Ryan Howard and I know she is pretty popular. I did appreciate her writing style and I think I would read more by her but I just didn’t love this novel. The set up for the conflict was good and I did like the parts written as the script for the movie. I just found it to be too convoluted for me and the ending didn’t match up with the events in the story (in my opinion).

This one is definitely a book I picked up because of the review by a fellow bookstagrammer and also because I loved The Nothing Man.

Wow- what a ride! This story quickly jumps into action and I found myself staying up way too late to read more chapters. I loved the format of how the story is told- the overlap of everything was so well done. Run Time kept me on the edge of my seat. I don’t need to say anything else about this book- if you’re looking for a fast paced thriller, put this on your list.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC- this one is available 8/16/22.

So Run Time was not the psychological horror I was expecting, but it was entertaining!

I was immediately drawn in by the writing style. I enjoyed the script within the book and the parallels it gave for the story. I think this helped the book flow easily and read quickly.

What left me a little underwhelmed was the horror elements. There were a few disconnected ideas and themes that didn’t make sense to me. This almost made the plot too predictable.

Although it’s scary to feel like you can’t trust your own mind, this theme is pretty tame if you’re looking to break into this genre.

Catherine Ryan Howard makes good use of a rising sense of panic and an unreliable narrator in her latest book: Final Draft.

A psychological horror movie, Final Draft, is being filmed at a house deep in a forest, miles from anywhere, in the wintry wilds of West Cork. At the very last moment, down-at-her-heels, former soap-star Adele Rafferty has stepped in to replace the original actress. She hopes that this opportunity will be her big break. She also knows she was lucky to get it, after what happened the last time she was on a set. But something isn’t quite right about Final Draft. Strange events keep happening, and when the events in the script start to happen in real life, Adele begins to fear that the real horror lies off the page.

Catherine is very good at generating suspense without resorting to gratuitous violence or bloodshed, and there are some genuinely creepy moments in the first half of the book. The story moves along at a good pace and there is plenty of mystery around what is happening and Adele’s past. The parallel unfolding of the script and the real life events haunting Adele is well handled, and both are interesting. The location where the film is being shot is also well limned and it adds plenty of eerie atmosphere to the book.

It is not difficult to suspect where the story may be going, but Catherine introduces some good twists and a very unexpected development towards the end. Adele’s sense of panic and her admitted unreliability as a narrator is also well handled, and adds to the uncertainty.

Overall, I really enjoyed Run Time. There is some flatness around the final ending, but this does not significantly detract from story or the good sense of unease that Catherine builds up over the course of the book.

After a career ending incident, actress Adele Rafferty finally scores a gig. It’s last minute and seems too good to be true, which it may be.

Don’t let the size of this one deter you; you will fly through it regardless of the 500+ pages. A good portion of it is screenplay, so they aren’t full pages. The screen play pages make for a good break in the story and add suspense. I loved the meta aspect of the story and how it played into the plot. I also enjoyed learning about film making and an actor’s day on the set.. until things got unusual of course.

“That’s the problem with mysteries. They only exist because you don’t have the answers. When you get them all the mystery gets vaporized.”

Run Time comes out 8/16.

Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for letting me read Run Time early. This one comes out on August 16.

This book has all the ingredients for a perfect thriller. The setting is fantastic, the characters are decently developed and the premise seems fool proof, at first. This book was super entertaining and I loved a lot about it but when I got to the ending it lost me. The whole book its about a movie being filmed from a book and you’re reading the book so obviously the clues are all there. I just wish they weren’t ALL THERE. It took all the surprise and open mouthed moments away for me. It was entertaining and I don’t regret reading it but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Final Draft, a psychological horror, being filmed at a house deep in a forest, miles from anywhere in the wintry wilds of West Cork. Former soap-star Adele Rafferty has stepped in to replace the original actress at the very last minute. She can’t help but hope that this opportunity will be her big break—and she knows she was lucky to get it, after what happened the last time she was on a set. Something isn’t quite right about Final Draft. When the strange goings-on in the script start to happen on set too, Adele begins to fear that the real horror lies off the page …

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the arc!

I'm afraid Run Time just wasn't for me. The story, while initially entertaining, was just overly long and a bit predictable

I read this in one sitting on an airplane and that is 100% how I recommend taking in Run Time. It isn't as scary as The Nothing Man, or quite as page turning as say Rewind, but it's the perfect summer read. Digestible, surprising, and entertaining. I recommend everything CRH writes, including this.