It was SO GOOD. This novel reminds me a lot of Time Bomb by Joelle Charbonneau and Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson. It’s all about kids at a school during a summer program when something goes wrong. The entire thing is so well written that it keeps you guessing from start to finish and you’re invested in all of the characters what happens to them. It also has InstaLove which seems like an app that I would have loved on my phone (even now). Creating something all your own the way that A.V Geiger does can’t be easy but the app sounds so well thought out as if they could have created it if they just got the code right.

The author keeps you guessing and does such a good job at misdirection that I was convinced I knew it would be Emerson in the end when ‘M’ came up on Eleanor’s visor only to change my mind when no one could find Miranda. It had to be her! She was clearly the one that changed the permitters and that’s why no one could find her. Nope. It was Emerson and I was so convinced by the misdirection that I stopped believing it was him until it was literally written out that he got the quest request.

I loved everything about this novel and I couldn’t put it down and finished it in a day because It was so good and I needed to know what was going to happen. I would totally recommend it.

While the book was okay overall, the pace at times was a bit too slow,which pulled me out of the story. Things were a bit confusing with the two Eleanors. It wasn't necessarily an overly original plot, though I did enjoy the female coders, showing that female leads can be smart and not need a male to guide or rescue them. This is classified as a mystery or thriller, and while there is that angle, it's pretty mild in comparison to what I expected and am used to reading.

While this book is somewhat frothy and fluffy, it still gave me a good thrill and the ending was a nice twist. I was pretty sure I had the ending figured out and was ready to skim to the end and it totally fooled me, so I give it an extra star just for that! It was a very fun read. I would consider this "One of Us is Lying" for the younger set.

I really wanted to love this book. I like the concept and the idea of the app but found myself struggling with the characters and found myself not wanting to continue reading. I sadly DNF'd this book. It just wasn't for me.

"Scared Little Rabbits" promises more thrills and intrigue than it delivers. Instead of the "And Then There Were None" delivery that was expected, the book is filled with uninspiring characters, minor plot twists, and a lackluster finale. Recommending a hard pass for purchase in any library.

My first time reading something from this author and WOW! She definitely blew me away! It's a gritty thrilled mixed with dashes of adorable romance! Nora is sort of an introvert who's most comfortable whenever she's at her computer coding and honestly I instantly connected with. I may not be a tech geek but I'm definitely an introvert who feels more comfortable with her books and it was refreshing to see Nora have this internal monologue where she was constantly berating herself...and really who doesn't do that on a daily basis? xD There was plenty of mystery and the part where it all came to light was a nail-biting moment! Nora found her inner strength to save herself and that was amazing! I'm giving it a 4.5 stars because...I think the end was a bit off? Not sure how to explain without spoilers but Nora could have worded her response a bit differently to her mom whenever her mom asked about Maddox. All in all it was a great book! I loved it! Also: Maddox is the love interest here and I adored him!!!!! He's a sweet, funny guy but has some secrets that need be handled with care but he comes through at the end and I'm happy with his ending.

3 for neutral. Will update if able to get into it enough to finish at a later date. I tried to read it a few times, but could never get into it enough to finish it. Just seemed very weird, but could be my mood.

“That, in a nutshell, is the brilliance behind this app. It doesn’t change who you are. It merely presents the world with an enhanced version, like makeup or well-cut clothes, only InstaLove covers up the embarrassing blemishes in your social skills.”

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Sourcebooks Fire. Trigger warnings: death, violence, injury, threats.

Nora is thrilled to be accepted to a prestigious summer program at Winthrop Academy, where she plans to put her coding skills to use on an awesome project for the annual Maker’s Fair. Before long, she’s pulled into an existing group that’s working on a sure winner: a set of virtual reality visors that will allow students to play one of the campus’s most popular apps, InstaLove, without their phones. When Nora spots a dangerous flaw in the program and another student goes missing, the technology trail leads to her–and she may be accused of murder.

I have a fondness for the YA thriller genre that I can’t shake. Set it at an elite school, add some pretentious teenagers, and throw in a murder or two, and I’m bound to pick it up. There’s something comforting about the familiar setup, no matter how many times I’ve read it. Scared Little Rabbits fits easily into that category without really setting itself apart. It’s exactly what I expected and not a bit more, and that’s fine. Sometimes, that’s all I want from a book. If there’s anything slightly unique about it, it’s all the fun coding references among the characters; I always enjoy reading about people who are smarter on a subject than I am.

In this case, the romance is a lot heavier than the thrills. The novel spends a lot of time establishing Nora’s relationship with Maddox, which is (as advertised) InstaLove-ish and utterly unremarkable. Nora is the smart, quiet girl who’s never had a relationship; Maddox is the charming, handsome guy with secrets, who’s apparently way out of her league but likes her anyway. (It doesn’t actually say she’s “not like other girls”, but it’s sort of implied.) I liked Nora well enough but tired of him quickly, particularly in his repeated references to Nora as a “scared little rabbit” or some other juvenilizing rabbit comparison. Put your visor on and walk off a cliff, please. As probably the third most developed character, Maddox’s ex-girlfriend, Eleanor, is utterly baffling; between her features in Nora and Maddox’s chapters and her online journal entries, she seems like two completely different characters, which is never really reconciled on page. I guess we’ll never know the real Eleanor.

As far as murder mystery thrills go, it’s slow to kick in. No one goes missing until 70% of the way in and, unfortunately, there’s very little mystery to be had. The plot has moved so glacially that every reveal is painfully obvious, from what happened to the missing student to who Eleanor has been plotting with behind the scenes. There are no surprises, and any thrills to be had happen in a single scene, which ups the body count rather abruptly for a book with only one previous death. Ah, well. I knew what I was getting into. It’s nice escapism, but I doubt I’ll remember much about it a year from now.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I've been a fan of AV Geiger since I first found her on wattpad with her story Follow Me Back. Geiger is great at building mystery and throwing readers off with her red herrings. Most of the time in her stories I am blindsided when the truth is revealed.
Geigers characters always feel relatable and real. They always accurately portray teenagers so it's easy to connect with them and root for them or cheer them on. Nora was an incredible character. Her shyness added to her overall appeal for me and I was able to easily picture her as myself. The other characters I had fun guessing if they were good or bad. Everytime I thought I knew, more was revealed that left me questioning again.
The setting of the story was unique and well planned out. That summer camp is actually a place I wish I could have gone as a kid. I enjoyed the technical aspect of it, as all nerds would, and found myself giddy to turn each page.
I enjoyed reading this story, as I always enjoy AV Geigers works. I look forward to seeing what she has in store next. #fanforlife

I still don't have words to describe my thoughts on this book. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't like it. I am in a weird in between. The concept and idea behind it all is intriguing but other then that there was nothing to it that kept me wanting to keep flipping the pages. The reason I gave it a 2 star rating is because I loved the technology and the app that the students had developed. It is something that I can see happening in the real world. It's basically a virtual reality Tinder and I loved it. But that is the only thing I loved about this book.



Sadly this one wasn't for me and isn't going to be something I recommend. But if it is on your TBR and you are debating on it, I say go ahead. Because you may end up loving it!

This was not really what I expected from A.V. Geiger. Follow Me Back is just crazy in building up confusion and suspense and generating insane theories and freaking out about what's going to happen next, but Scared Little Rabbits kind of fell short in that sense.

I think what really ruined a lot of it for me was the characters. They weren't particularly likable or complex as a whole, and my dislike and dismissal of their thinking and actions kind of muted what was actually happening in terms of the plot.

I'm also still kind of confused about the whole technology-basis of the book? It's really cool how it was supposed to be a new techy layer of existence, almost similar to Marie Lu's Warcross, and I like how it kind of explored how technology is still fundamentally sourced to people and human error, which is really easy to forget in the modern day. But biggest things are clarity and development, and I feel like the oversimplification of tech descriptions drew away from the complexity that should have been more present.

Anyway, my lack of being enraptured by the characters extended to the plot, so while it was nice to be able and read how everything resolved, I didn't really feel like I had an opinion on the ending or actual plotline. Drama, drama, revelations, drama, drama, the end.

Regardless, I really appreciate that I've been able to read Geiger's next book, as I've been following her for years, and continue to look forward to what comes next for her.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the access to this ARC <3

Nora has never really fit in at school so when she gets accepted to Winthrop Academy's summer maker program, she thinks she will finally meet more people like her. Her dreams of spending the summer bunking with another nerdy girl discussing the latest Teen Hack programs quickly vanish, as she realizes Winthrop students are an elite mix of wealth and intelligence. Trying to make the most of it while away from her parents, Nora decides to try out the new InstaLove app, a Winthrop Academy brain child, which combines a location-based interactive social aspect with augmented reality. When Nora's InstaLove app connects her with Maddox it looks like her summer social life might be improving...that is until she discovers he is already in a relationship with the most popular girl at school Eleanor. Getting between Maddox and Eleanor makes Nora the school pariah...until Eleanor goes missing and all the evidence of her disappearance points to Nora. Nora will have to find out what happened to Eleanor and clear her name before she is the next one to vanish.

Scared Little Rabbits is a fun YA mystery novel. The entire school is beta testing a new social media app which is like a combination of Pokémon Go and Instagram in which the players use augmented reality glasses to play. The characters are well written and the romance between Nora and Maddox is complicated but cute. The novel then turns to a whodunit when Eleanor disappears. Each of the characters has the technical knowledge to cover their tracks and everything points to Nora as the culprit. The novel's techie aspect offers a fresh take on the typically YA mystery and it’s a really fast, fun, enjoyable read...the perfect book to curl up with over a weekend.

I really wanted to like this book cause I loved the previous two books from this author. Unfortunately, I couldn't get past the first couple of chapters. It just wasn't that compelling to me and it felt like it was more about the love story than the actual mystery.

This book goes crescendo with a last part that will have you grip the edge of your seat when the tension culminates and the mystery unravel. I read it till 2 AM in the morning as I was glued to the pages!

Scared Little Rabbits is a YA mystery/crime happening in the span of three weeks at summer camp for geek the “Winthrop Academy Summer Maker Program”.

Nora is your very socially awkward geeky teenager. She is genius at coding and worked hard to get that place on the Fair Maker summer camp at the prestigious and private Winthrop Academy.
She was a very endearing character. One that as a mom I wanted to encourage when she was always overlooked by her peers because she was on the very shy scale when confronted with her summer classmates.
She felt transparent. She was the nerdy wallflower. The first scenes with Nora being talked about but not talked to, given a patronizing nickname like "Lowercase" was perfect to make us remember what it was being in high school when you were not members of the "school royalty" clique.
“He never really saw me. Neither did those girls I passed back there. Are we sensing a theme yet? I don’t know why, but people tend to overlook me. I swear if I had a superpower, I know what it would be: invisibility.”
She is the new kid at the Maker Program, a little fish in a sea of posh sharks and she stood out like a sore thumb!

But Nora is brilliant at what she does! She lives for coding and robotics is her passion!
“I’m not the only girl on the planet who makes robotic landscaping equipment for fun, am I?”
Thanks to that gift she will soon be enrolled to give a hand on a “sure to win” project! She will work with "High and Mighty" controlling Eleanore Winthorp, "Single minded and focused driven" Reese and "Ubercute charmer" Maddox.
They need her skills and the prospect of being on this advanced project is enough for Nora to mostly overlook the contempt she gets from Eleanor and Reese.
It does not help either that Maddox seems to have taken a liking to Nora at the great fury of his Girlfriend... Eleanor!


From the opening scene we know right from the start that a murder or a something terrible happened to a student. All students of the academy are gathered atop a cliff to witness the police retrieving something or someone from a lake down below.
We brace ourselves as we know this whole story will lead to that moment and that killers are probably on the loose.
But who did it? And why?

I guessed who did it but late in the story. Nearly when we would have known anyway. A.V. Geiger did a great job erasing her trail and sending us on goose chase.
Take Maddox for example. I never knew if he truly liked Nora or played a twisted game. Each time I thought he was a great guy I was thrown on a loop, doubting everything once more.
Eleanor was also a mystery with her unsend and erased messages in the dropbox. You could see that she was hiding something but what? I never liked her conniving and blackmailing ways but maybe this was all an act and there was more to the true Eleanor?

In this story I liked:
-the concept of working on augmented reality project through the InstaLove app. I think it set the story in today's teenage life and interests. It also delivers some important messages about how you can lose yourself in a very addictive virtual world, perfect venue for shy and awkward teens. It's so much easier to interact hiding behind your augmented avatar. Nora 2.0.
It also showed the dangers of such games if they are hacked or altered.

- Nora. She was very relatable and felt “real”. A.V. Geiger took the time and care to flesh out her character is such way that you can’t help but think about the shy nerdy girl next door. I also loved her sarcasm that we got to enjoy when she was having her inner dialogs. Self-deprecating.
I actually sounded friendly there. Weird. I suppose that happens once in a while. In moments of high awkwardness, random words come out of my mouth—unpredictable, but occasionally friendly.

-the other characters portrayed to confuse you and have you guessing at if they were friends or foe!

-the mystery and the dramatic ending! My heart was beating frantically! I love grand finale!

I want to thank Sourcebook Fire for gifting me this copy through Netgalley. It had no influence on my willing and always honest review.

I was a pretty big fan of Wildman which came out by AV Geiger a couple of years ago but this just didn't do it for me.

Twists and turns in this unique mystery read. It is based around an app that is used by Nora and her fellow Winthrop Academy goers. It kept me interested and ended well. Story is steady paced.

Nora is a coding genius, and can't wait to showcase her skills at a prestigious summer program. When one of her teammates goes missing and it appears that Nora is a fault, can she find out who's really guilty and clear her name?

A really good premise for a mystery, but one that I didn't fully believe. Too much romance for most of my high school mystery readers.

**Review will be posted on my blog http://pastmidnight.home.blog on November 20, 2019**

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

Nora is a sixteen year old, coder who is accepted to a three weeks long summer program at Winthrop Academy. She’s a bit awkward in social situations and has trouble making friends. Nora has downloaded an app called InstaLove which is supposed to hook her up with someone special. Right away she runs into a fellow InstaLove player, Maddox, at Winthrop that she categorizes him as an InstaCrush in the game. But all is not what it seems at Winthrop and she doesn’t know who she can trust. Is Maddox really into her? Or is he still with his ex-girlfriend Eleanor who basically rules the school (but I mean, her parents own it)? Is Nora just a Scared Little Rabbit?

What I Liked:

*The story starts off with a mysterious incident which gives it a slightly dark vibe. We get a dual perspective from Nora and Maddox but also journal entries from Eleanor (Maddox’s ex). I was mistrustful of Maddox, and everyone else that Nora encountered at Winthrop Academy. I definitely enjoyed the suspense. The reveal in the end included lots of action, so that was my favorite part of the book.

*The coding and technology information in this book is pretty legit. I think it’s fascinating that the story revolved around a dating app that uses augmented reality. As a mild gamer (like SO mild, my son and hubby are the gamers), and one who tried Pokemon Go (not my thing), having a dating app like that kind of scares me but can I see that being a reality for my kids, in their future? Oh for sure! My son’s VR games make me dizzy, so I don’t think I’d be someone who would want to wear a visor all the time to check out some potential hookup haha. But I can see the appeal for future generations I suppose. It’s obvious the author knows her coding and tech knowledge. 👏🏼
*I liked seeing these characters, a lot of them girls 🙌🏼, so adept and confident at their coding skills. These girls at this summer program are smart, techy, innovative, okay most of them were mean girls or just weren’t nice to Nora (which sucked) but I do like that these girls were good at what they do. Maddox also was good looking AND smart, so that was good.

Things That Made Me Go Hmmm:

~I guess it was obvious in the first chapters that this was going to be an insta-love story when it introduced Nora playing a game called InstaLove! 😂 So…if you aren’t into books with insta-love, this book is clearly one to stay clear of. It’s a three week summer program but Nora falls fast and hard for Maddox so fast. I felt bad for her at times, because clearly his situation was “complicated” with his ex-girlfriend who was Queen Bee on campus. That being said, I thought okay…it’s a crush, she’s sixteen, but…she was in LOVE and telling her parents that she needed to BE with Maddox and he was coming to visit her by the end of the story. 😳

~Speaking of the ending…I thought it was abrupt. We barely get to know anyone’s parents in this book, but all of a sudden there is Nora and her mom having a scene at the end! It felt awkward.

~Nora’s nickname given by the girls in the summer program got of my nerves. I understand it’s a “mean girls” type of story, but seriously, having them call her Lowercase, including Maddox, like really? That’s the guy who falling hard for? No. 🙄

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I thought the story was fairly enjoyable especially when it came to the suspense and mystery aspect but it fell short for me in the romance department since I didn’t feel like Nora and Maddox’s connection was that deep. If you like a suspense story about technology and don’t mind some insta-love, then you might enjoy this one.

Scared Little Rabbits is an interesting mystery, one that is filled with intriguing plot devices. I enjoyed the characters (they are certainly unique) and the overall plot. I did however find the story itself to be a little slow. What should have been a quick read for me turned into a 3 day adventure. Normally I breeze through novels but this one I had a hard time picking back up when I put it down. All in all though I think many readers will enjoy it. I just wasn't a favorite of mine.

This book was a nice read, it helped pass the time but it took a long time to get to the thrilling part of the book. It felt like the book dragged for the first 50-60% but overall I enjoyed it when we reached the last 30%.

I have qualms about some characters being so difficult to relate to as from the get go I hated the eleanor and reese girls, but loved Nora and Maddox.

Will be posting my review up in the next couple of days on the blog which I've linked down below.
Thank you for letting me read this book