This is the third of Catherine Ryan Howard's books that I have read and one I was very much looking forward to getting into.

Former soap-star Adele Rafferty grabs a last-minute opportunity to play the lead in a hush-hush psychological horror set in an isolated house in West Cork. Having fled Ireland six months ago in an attempt to outrun a meltdown on a feature film in fears of becoming known as 'difficult to work with' - a dead knell in any young actors career - Adele arrives in West Cork disorientated from her long flight to find a skeleton crew, no phone reception and events strangely echoing the script she is meant to be making, a script whose main character is experiencing parallels to the book she also finds in an isolated cottage. It becomes more and more difficult for Adele to figure out if she is imagining things or if life really is imitating art.

Howard dots the landscape of this book with some nice nods to her other books and her own interests (Jurassic Park anyone?) and the premise of a book within a script within a book adds layers to the trope Howard used so successfully in The Nothing Man. As a horror fan myself I was looking forward to seeing how Howard built this meta idea into story that would keep us on edge but for me it didn't quite succeed.

In The Nothing Man Howard uses the book within the book ideas to tell two different POVs and two different timelines whereas in Run Time the parallels between the events from the book to the script to Adele's own experiences started feeling repetitious and a little too coincidental, and I didn’t feel Adele was in any real peril despite the horror genre and didn’t mind too much if she was.

Some of this is down to when we first meet Adele in LA at a disastrous audition. Howard holds back on a lot of the backstory that may have endeared Adele to the reader. As it was, I found a character who while very smart - the way she deals with the creepy Neil in particular made me proud of her – was one I didn’t really find myself rooting for.

So I’m sad to say that this wasn’t a book for me. However I've always enjoyed Howard’s work and I eagerly await what comes next!

Fast paced and overall enjoyable. It lost a bit of steam once we started to learn what was going on. I really like book within a book type things and I feel like that added to my enjoyment. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending. I mean, sure, I guess, but it just felt a little too far-fetched. ( )

I was hopeful and highly anticipating reading this one, but it was a letdown. I've been trying to think about how to review this for a while and I keep coming up blank. It was a meh read for me, personally.
Sorry to say it was disappointing for me. It's a story, inside a story, and so forth, but it felt like it might be too much. It also went on kind of long. It has some good parts to it and there are others that would probably like it and enjoy it, so if you like this author or this kind of story, then definitely check it out.
Thanks to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for letting me read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

I thought this book was clever. Everything was weaved together nicely. Even though it is over 500 pages, there was never a dull moment. There was so much suspense, so many things that didn't make sense that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough to find out what exactly was going on! Great setting - out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by lots and lots of trees. I liked the main character, Adele. Honestly, I liked everything about this book. It was amazing.

Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for an ARC. ( )

Adele Rafferty has reached the point when she thinks no-one will ever ask her to work in a movie again. She has decided not to waste money on an agent, because she believes her reputation, and what happened on set when she was last under contract, will precede her.

So she is really surprised by the phone call asking how quickly she can flying from LA to Ireland to begin filming in a new movie. But the cast and management that she joins in West Cork are marked by their lack of experience, despite the fact that the producer appears to have a strong reputation.

The author has attempted a very ambitious structure for the novel, with a story within a story, with events in real time mirroring events described in the script.

For most of the time Adele feels she really has no idea what is going on, or, more importantly, who is behind the events occurring.

I found the book a challenging read. There was almost the feeling at the end of having coming out of a dark tunnel, Like Adele herself, you can't help wondering how much of "action" is stemming from Adele's own mental fragility. And yet the various threads do make sense by the end. ( )