Once again Catherine Ryan Howard is killing the game! If you’re looking for a creepy, atmospheric book perfect for spooky season, here it is!

I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. I enjoyed reading the excepts from the screen play intermixed with the storyline. I think it really added to the suspense.

This is, I think, the longest book Howard has written, but don’t let it scare you… it’s completely worth it!

Thank you so much to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced arc in return for my honest opinion.

Lots of creepy feels with this intense and fast-paced thriller! Adele is an actress who finds herself without work and looking for her next gig. Having had a breakdown on the set of her last show, she feels she will unlikely be cast in anything anytime soon, until she receives a phone call and a contract to star in a top-secret production in her home country. Once she arrives to the movie set and signs a non-disclosure agreement as to the location and making of the horror movie, filming abruptly begins. She finds she is the only female cast in a production crew of 8 in a very rural, isolated and down-right creepy location. Weird things start to happen in a similar fashion to the script and all the creepy feels and twists start from there. This one sucked me in quickly and kept me entertained all the way through. 4-stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC version of this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

Adele Rafferty became an actress by accident -- a chance meeting at a casting call when she was just a child led to her budding stardom on a successful TV show in Ireland. But after fleeing to L.A. for a clean slate and bigger dreams, Adele struggles to find acting gigs in a big town with countless other actresses vying for the same "big break". So when she gets an out-of-the-blue call about a super-secret, NDA-requiring lead role in an upcoming suspense movie being filmed in her home country, she skeptically yet gratefully boards the first flight back to Ireland. Adele becomes increasingly uncomfortable when she gets to the secluded cottage in the Irish countryside, especially with a skeleton crew of all men, a rude director, and no cell service. When weird things start happening, she realizes she was right to be skeptical about the role but isn't sure who -- or what -- she can trust around her. What began as Adele's revival role becomes a fight for her survival.

Thoughts: Premise = interesting, which is why I requested this NetGalley DRC. I'm a horror/thriller movie fan, so this sounded like my kind of book. And it started off strong as an intriguing meta-plot -- a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening playing the part of a young woman at a secluded Irish cottage where scary things start happening who is reading a book about a young woman at the same secluded cottage where scary things start happening. I was ready for a mind-twisting story. What I got instead was some gaslighting, repetitive scenes, a mystery I solved halfway through, and a concluding explanation that was very anticlimactic. This is the second Catherine Ryan Howard book I've read and I wasn't terribly impressed with the first one, either. I will say, though, that the suspense scenes are well-written and definitely gave the plot the cat-and-mouse, who-can-she-trust vibes the story synopsis promised. I just wish there was a bigger twist to make the plot less predictable and the ending more impactful.

**Thank you, Netgalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for a honest review.

I read The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard last year and absolutely loved it, so I was super excited to get approved for her newest book! One of my favorite parts about The Nothing Man was the book within a book element. I thought Ryan Howard did it so well, and I think she did it just as well in Run Time. I loved the layers of this story, I thought it added so much to the creepy element, and didn't feel super confused even though it was a book within a book within a movie. For most of the book, I genuinely didn't know what was going to happen, and loved the way the story unfolded. By the end, I did kind of easily figure out the ending, but it didn't bother me that much. This was a super fun, easy read for people who love slasher type movies with a solid mystery and some creepy elements throughout!

3.75, rounded up to 4.

Run Time was a fun read and true popcorn thriller: equal parts bingeable and suspenseful, with nothing particularly scary or violent. Re: its bingeablity, I didn’t even realize how long it was (clocking in at over 500 pages) until after I’d finished it; I was just along for and enjoying the ride I guess!

This is definitely for fans of “story within a story” plots; frankly, if that’s not your cup of tea, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. Word to the wise! For me, I typically like those, and I think CRH did a great job of using the movie script to add to the creepiness for both Adele, our MC, and for the reader.

Full disclosure: I kind of struggled with 56 Days, I think because I wasn’t at all ready to read a book about quarantine right when we were starting to return to our lives. But I was intrigued by Run Time’s synopsis and am ultimately glad I gave it a shot.

Many thanks to Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this ARC. Run Time is out today, 8/16 - enjoy!

“Based on a terrifying true story, that hasn’t happened - yet.”
Struggling former actress Adele can’t resist when she is offered the lead role in the upcoming thriller Final Draft. However, when she arrives on set, deep in the forest with no cell service and only a skeleton crew, she wonders if she made a horrible mistake. Soon Adele’s real life starts mimicking the mysterious events from the script, a story about a woman who spends the weekend in a cabin in the woods, while reading a book about a woman who was spending a weekend in the woods. As more and more terrifying events occur, Adele starts questioning her own sanity, and if she still has time to run...

A story within a story within a story, yikes! This story had so many twists and turns, I couldn’t put it down! Very creative and brilliantly written, this definitely will not be my last book by Catherine Ryan Howard. Run Time releases today, so make sure to run out and grab your copy now!

Special thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for sharing an ARC with me in exchanged for my honest review.

Rating - 4.5 stars rounded off to 5
     
What a fun thriller packed with adrenaline and ultimate entertainment!   
  
🍿Grab a bowl of popcorn and dive right in into this book, curled up on your couch and you won’t regret it!   
  
Synopsis -

Adele Rafferty is badly in need of a big break. So, she blindly accepts the offer to replace the original actress in the project of “Final Draft”, a horror movie that is to be directed by the promising Director Steve Dade. But when she arrives on set in West Cork, Ireland, she senses that something isn’t right. When the horror side of the movie starts becoming real, Adele can’t help but to “run” for life.   
  
Review -
Driven mainly by the plot, this thriller manages to keep us at the edge of the seat right from the beginning. The Irish setting, isolation, the surrounding dense forest and bad weather conditions provided the perfect backdrop for this movie shoot gone wrong plot.   
  
Where Howard excels is her plot construction. I really loved the “nested” concept she employs so smartly – Adele’s real life that weirdly mirrors the storyline/screen play of the movie, that is in turn moving in sync with the events of the book it features.   
  
There was simply no way to figure out what was going throughout most of the book. CRH does a great job of creating confusion, planting seeds of doubt in our minds, unable to trust anything that’s happening on the set, including Adele’s narrative. We are just left grappling for answers until the very end where the twists come banging.  
  
Once Adele realizes the sheer depth of wrongness with the shoot and starts running, the book simply takes off and it is impossible to stop reading until the mystery completely unravels.   
  
Though the first half is slow burn, the tension builds and builds to a crescendo towards the end, pumping in all the thrills, excitement and adventure that delivers full throttle entertainment! This masked some of the tiny unrealistic vibes I felt 🙈.       
  
Thanks NetGalley and BlackStone Publishing for the ARC in exchange of an honest review!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the new thriller by Catherine Ryan Howard - 4 stars!

Adele Rafferty is down on her luck, working as a waitress in LA, after having a breakdown on her last acting job. When she is contacted about a last-minute acting job in West Cork, she jumps at the chance to hopefully resume her acting career and her life. The setting is very remote, in the middle of the woods, with a sparse crew. Things just don't seem right from the beginning. And they are only going to get worse.

This was a bit confusing - it's about a book within another book in a movie. All with different but similar character names. It was a bit long too which seemed to add to the confusion. But it was a solid creepy thriller - nothing like filming a horror movie in the midst of the dark woods when everything seems to be going wrong. This author's last book, 56 Days, was one of my favorites from last year so I went into this one with super high expectations. I'm already anxious awaiting her next!

This was my second book by Catherine Ryan Howard and I think it was just so-so for me. This is advertised more as a thriller but to me it felt more like a horror book that will be perfect for the upcoming spooky season. I enjoyed the premise of the story taking place on a film set, but sometimes it felt like the plot was dragging and I would lose momentum to actually want to read it. The plot within a plot within a plot made me wonder if I was reading a new version of Inception the whole time. It would get so repetitive that got to be too much. I always looked forward to the script text because I would fly through those section but then become a slug during the main story. It wasn't until the final 100 pages that I felt glued to my seat needing to know how the ending would come to fruition. But with it being over 400 pages long, it felt like it took too long to get to the meat and potatoes of it all. Many people loved this one, but like I said it was just average for me. The author's other book, 56 Days, also was just average for me, so I'm still holding out for a 4+ star book by Catherine.

📚 Book Review: Run Time 🎬
This was such a GREAT BOOK!! I loved it. It was so fun and really creepy. 🫣 I was getting so scared at different parts. The tension was real. I definitely could not listen late at night before going to bed.
So for those that don’t know much about this book I can tell you some things without giving too much away. It’s about an out of work actress Adele, who after looking for work for a year. Then, she was finally offered the lead role in a low budget horror film, called Final Draft. Of course she’s excited and accepts the offer right away. So Adele flies to this remote location, a cabin in the woods, (where else of course, it’s a horror movie 🤣) to begin filming. How cliche right?! But after they begin filming, strange things start to happen. It seems like what was happening to the MC in the movie, was also starting to happen to Adele in real life. Who was behind it though? Or was Adele just imagining it?
You’ll have to read it to find out. But it’s crazy and creepy and wonderful. I really enjoyed this one, as usual. Catherine Ryan Howard knows how to write a thriller. 👏🏻 And I love her books so much. It’s ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 stars for me!

A special thank you to @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for this early audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Run Time Pub Day: TODAY 8/16/22!

Have you read or listened to any books by Catherine Ryan Howard? Which one is your favorite? My favorite is still The Nothing Man.

Welcome to Run Time. This book made me think I was on a horror movie set for real.

Former soap-star Adele Rafferty who is now living in LA, a long way away from her home gets a phone call that changes everything. She gets an opportunity to travel back home and be the star of a horror movie called Final Draft. Adele fly's out straight away and arrives on set, a spooky house in the middle of nowhere – No mobile phone service and working weird hours. She wakes up and notices the whole crew has just up and left on day two. This is when things start getting very interesting. Things from the movie script start happening to Adele and she is 100% spooked especially when the power goes out.

Okay! That ending 🤯. That is not what I expected. This book is a chunky one, coming in at a whopping 520 pages but I absolutely enjoyed every moment. I enjoyed the snippets of the movie script.

Thank you Blackstone Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced copy for an honest review.

This is chilling, engrossing, psychological horror/thriller that will have you questioning everything before it's secrets are revealed.

Our protagonist, Adelle, is an almost washed up actor who had a mental breakdown on her last movie set. She's now struggling with life in LA where she works at the front desk of a hotel.

When she receives a call to star in a low budget horror film back in her native Ireland, she jumps at the chance.

However, things are not what they seem and people might not be who they appear to be. Almost immediately there's a sense of wrongness about the set and the crew. And things start to get rather creepy fast.

The movie is about a book that mirrors what happens to the couple in the film. But these things start happening to Adelle on set. So it's kind of a meta world we're engaging in and that makes the mind boggling events even more ominous.

The twists and turns are plentiful and, by the end, you won't know who to trust until the last secret is revealed.

This was an excellent thrill and I enjoyed reading it. Highly recommend.

Blair Witch vibes all around!

A lot of intertwined styles and stories mixed together. At times it does get a little jarring and in need of a refresh, but a thriller with a fascinating edge.

Predictable at a very slow pace. There came a certain point in the book where I had 90% of the plot figured out, and after that it was just hard to finish.

I really loved The Nothing Man and another of her backlist books, but not this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the digital advanced reader's copy.

This was such a page-turner.

Adele Rafferty has been called in to star in an independent horror film at the last minute. She knows it's a little sketchy, but since her last movie role ended in disaster, she's desparate.

Maybe she should have made a different choice.

Perhaps a movie based on a fictional horror novel coming true isn't the right choice for someone whose sense of reality might be a bit off. Especially when Adele begins to believe that both the fictional horror movie and novel are now really coming to life, with her at the vicious, terrifying center.

This one's all about the plot and the trustworthiness of Adele.

As things go from bad to worse on the movie set, the reader can't be sure that Adele's perspective of what's happening is entirely trustworthy, not least because Adele isn't entirely sure of her own trustworthiness.

As it's revealed what happened to Adele on the earlier movie, and as it's revealed what may really be happening to her on this movie set, the questions begin to have answers, but not before you're completely engulfed in the crazy world of this horror novel-cum-slasher film-cum-reality.

The answers are, ultimately, a little disappointing after the wild ride Adele has been on, but they're satisfactory. The plot also definitely pushes the bounds of believability, but it's a fun ride.

All in all, a perfect weekend thriller.

*language, violence, sexual situations

I just finished Run Time by Catherine Ryan Howard and here is what I thought,
Adele is working a dead end job waiting for her next break in show business. When the call finally comes, she cannot believe her luck and the call comes just in time.
What is the movie? A psychological horror movie where she is the only actor for 70% of the movie.
Problem is, things just don’t seem to be quite right with the whole situation. For starters things in the script beginning happen in reality and after what happened to her on her last job…. Adele is even more frightened of the reasons why….
This was a really interesting concept for a book and, for the most part, the script chapters added to the whole feel of the book. It was well written and I liked the book as a whole but the ending…. I don’t know why it was done this way. I honestly don’t think the ending made sense. Maybe it’s just me but it really was a let down at the end.

I liked Adele, I thought she was really well developed. I loved the location of the book but the ending… UGHHHH. Just not buying it and that’s tragic to me.

It had some nice twists, some interesting developments and for the most part, I was very well entertained.

3.5 stars read for me! I would definitely try more from this author! (rounded to 4)

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone publishing for my ARC!

𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪: 𝗥𝘂𝗻 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝗖𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱

𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Mystery Thriller
𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀: 437

Pub-date: 16th Aug 2022

Thank you @netgalley and @blackstonepublishing for my advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review!

Oh my goodness, bring on the popcorn….this was so entertaining! This is my first novel by this author and I'm seriously doubting my sanity because I haven't read "The Nothing Man" yet, even though it's been on my shelf for over a year! What is wrong with me? (Shiny squirrel syndrome, anyone?).🐿

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and biting my nails furiously. I couldn't put it down and needed to know what the hell was going on!

Adele is a young actress down on her luck after a nervous breakdown on a film set in Ireland. She now lives in LA and works at a hotel, but is surprised when she receives an offer for the leading role in a horror movie. Time and budget are tight, so her presence is immediately required in a small village in the wintry wilds of west Cork.

Immediately upon arriving at this remote location in the middle of nowhere she receives a text message from an unknown number telling her not to go. It’s not safe! She is instantly wary and the fact that she’s the only woman among seven men doesn’t set her mind at ease. Then strange things start to happen that resemble the film script she’s supposed to be shooting.

I just loved the eerie atmosphere, especially when there is no phone rage and a storm breaks out that cuts off the power! I thought the idea of having the book follow the story of the script was brilliant!

If you love slasher movies where the protagonist is isolated from civilisation while someone is trying to harm them, you should definitely pick this up!

I read 56 days last year which wasn’t my favorite. I think it was because I went through it as an audio. So I wanted to give the author another shot when I saw that she had another book coming out. The style of writing on this one is very unique. With present day narration and a movie script at the end of each chapter, mimicking the events that happen in real life. Bookception if you will!

Thank you so much to Netgalley for an e-ARC and a gifted finished copy to Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review! This one publishes 8/16/22

Adele is desperate to turn her career as an actress around after a fiasco happened on her last project. So when she was offered the lead role for a low budget horror film because their first choice backed out, she takes it with no holds barred. When she gets to the set, strange things occur and things aren’t what they seem as the horror film suddenly comes to life.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Okay, this was a wild ride! I was absolutely captivated once the story started picking up and the tension building was excellent. It had me on the edge of my seat asking what was going on and the atmosphere gave me the creeps. Picture a remote area filled with trees and nothing but the woods, with no people or even reception. That in itself is frightening to me. I have a huge fear of being alone in a remote area with no service. So it felt like I was living my nightmare! To top it all off, strange things happen that will definitely make you wonder. This is a great book to read in the fall during spooky season!

𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚: 𝘈𝘵𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵, 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘦

I have found a new favourite thriller author! This was the second Catherine Ryan Howard book I read, and I absolutely loved it.

A former soap star with a past, Adele Rafferty, was offered a very promising role in a small production of a psychological horror movie. It was to be shot in a secluded cottage in West Cork, far away from neighbours and traffic, where there was no phone reception and wi-fi. The project itself, Final Draft, was about a couple finding themselves staying in a cottage where creepy things happened mirroring events in a book titled First Draft, which they found on the cottage’s bookshelf.

I loved this story plot! Adele finding herself in a creepy situation, while shooting a movie about a couple getting into a creepy situation, mirroring a book about a couple stuck on a creepy situation was very meta (yes, I’m a big fan of Inception).

Additionally, I loved Adele as the main character. She was definitely not a damsel in distress, and I really enjoyed her thought process and her reactions to what was happening around her. Her inner monologues about the dark side of movie industry were also very enjoyable to me.

The movie scripts inserted between the chapters were very effective. The level of meta-ness reached its height in the epilogue for me. Loved it.

I’d highly recommend this book to all thriller fans out there. This book deserves more hype!

Run Time is the popcorn thriller of 2022.

The plot structure of the book is so unique and fun to read. A book within a movie script within a book? It's very bookception, in a meta way. I really enjoyed the snippets of the movie script which I think accentuated what was already a creepy and atmospheric setting.

This one takes a little to get going, but once it does it rolls fast. There were some pulse racing moments very reminiscent of the horror/slasher movie genre that had me looking over my shoulder and at one point, getting up to double check the power was working.

I will note that, because of the self-referential style, there is some predictability and repetition which I urge you to look beyond because it is still a very entertaining and thrilling read.

If you enjoy horror movies, possible unreliable narrators and isolated settings, you will enjoy the ride which is Run Time.