I thoroughly enjoyed this book; it's outside my usual genre and I'm glad I gave it a chance. I'm not big on thrillers or crime novels or anything remotely of that nature but I kept hearing good things about this book and the synopsis captured my attention. It's definitely full of twists and turns and kept me guessing, which I liked (hate when I solve the mystery from the get go). Definitely worth stepping out of my norm and reading something a little different.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fun teen read! I enjoyed that it was from a different perspective than most teen books. I really liked the main characters and enjoyed that they were different. I liked reading the tech aspect for teens and thought the plot was extremely interesting. Great read overall!

While I loved the authors other books, I wasn’t able to get into this one unfortunately. I may be willing to give it another shot in the future.

Scared Little Rabbits is the story of sixteen year-old, Nora who is accepting into a prestigious summer coding camp at Winthrop Academy. She is an introvert who is more comfortable in front of her computer than socializing with people, but is hoping this camp, with like-minded individuals, will change that. She is instantly drawn to Maddox, a young man with his own secrets. Another camper, Reese, has developed, and is beta-testing, these glasses to use with the VR game InstaLove, developed by Emerson, a Winthrop Academy alum and Reese's older brother. As one of the most promising young coders at camp, Nora is quickly brought into the Maker Faire group with Reese, and her best friend Eleanor, who just happens to be a Winthrop and Maddox's girlfriend. Interspersed throughout Nora and Maddox's points of view, are diary entries from Eleanor, who has a big secret that even her best friend does not know. While I like Geiger's writing style, I would not put this book in the thriller category. The tension does not ratchet up until almost three quarters of the way through the book. Also, Eleanor's secret, for me, was pretty easy to figure out with the clues left in her diary and her secrecy. I also did not like the insta-love between Nora and Maddox. I would understand Nora being attracted to a cute boy, but I would have liked more of a build-up, so the relationship was more believable. Overall, this was an average read, but I would not recommend for true mystery/thriller readers, perhaps for those who are looking to get into the genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a little love story and a little crime thriller all rolled into one young adult novel. The main characters are Nora and Maddox and they meet at a summer "nerd" program at Winthrop Academy. Nora is an awkward girl who is still trying to grow into herself and Maddox is a boy who already has a girlfriend... Boy meets Girl, they fall in love very quickly and all Hell breaks loose. :) While it did take awhile, the suspense grabs hold of you once it does...you aren't quite sure who is the bad guy until the end because there are so many twists and turns. It felt like every single character had secrets of their own that even we don't know till the end because they did such a good job of keeping them from each other. All in all, this was a very cute but suspenseful book and I would definitely give any other books by the author a try.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a copy of this book in exchange for a review! I’m glad to see another Geiger YA mystery and was definitely ready to gobble it up. (…because I read it in November. Thanksgiving. Got it? I’ll see myself out.)

I always feel like I need to explain my relationship with authors, and thus nothing new here. I picked up Geiger’s first book, Follow Me Back, on a whim from Netgalley a few years ago, not knowing it was a Wattpad story. It is probably the book that made me realize I love the trope of famous person getting together with a normal person in secret. Geiger is good for a few twists and turns too.
The synopsis given on Goodreads and Netgalley is a bit misleading though. I picked this book up thinking that murder would happen early, and the majority of this book would be spent with Nora trying to figure out what happened before everyone else did. The murder doesn’t happen until probably over 65% of the way through the book? There is a prologue showing that something bad is going to happen and NO ONE IS TO BE TRUSTED, but the set up to get to this spot is much longer than I expected. I’m not saying this is a bad thing or that I didn’t enjoy it, it’s just not the book I was quite expecting it to be.
Nora is incredibly timid and insecure, which made me want to shake her a few times. But then again, if I had gone away during the summer as a teen to a program where everyone seems to know each other and you are definitely odd man out, I probably would have curled into a ball and hated the entire program. She finds a friend in Maddox, the guy she is crushing on. I wish she had found more friends — at least one girlfriend would have been good, but most characters that aren’t the main four are a bit blanded out. Is she the only newbie in this program? There isn’t another newbie who is also in need of some TLC? It makes the reader distrust Maddox completely, even though we get his POV too, and nothing is too nefarious in it. But still, he doesn’t try to really introduce her to anyone new, he’s her first major crush, he becomes her program partner… the isolation on top of her shyness is almost claustrophobic.
I do love the tech in the book. I also love how Geiger has Nora think in code occasionally, which just feels real. When you’re good at something, especially solving something, trying to put uncomfortable situations and issues into those terms just makes sense. I personally try to figure out tropes of people (IT DOESN’T WORK.) Also the tech in this book feels real and fun, and something that would be coming soon and definitely be used.
What I also love is that Geiger actually has a background in coding. She’s a STEM student, and that helped making the coding aspects of this story feel more real. The whole “write what you know” really shines here.

Final Moments
If you’re looking for a YA mystery novel, this one isn’t a bad place to start. I also recommend her first two books, Follow Me and Tell Me No Lies. I think Geiger’s skill has definitely improved, and I am looking forward to seeing where she goes next!

Thank you NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description
We stand in a tight cluster, high above the lake. One-by-one, we made our way up the narrow trail from the edge of campus. Now, we wait shoulder to shoulder behind the police tape. Nineteen summer students.

All but one.

When Nora gets accepted into her dream summer program at the prestigious Winthrop Academy, she jumps at the chance to put her coding skills to use. But then a fellow student goes missing-and the tech trail for the crime leads back to Nora. Running scared, Nora must race to clear her name and uncover the sordid truth...or she might be the next to disappear.

This is my first book by A.V. Geiger and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I truly enjoyed it. I must admit that the Virtual Reality and all the computer-nerdy-talk was basically greek to me, but I did like the murder/mystery that unfolds before our eyes. Well developed characters with a spot on narrative that kept me at the edge of my seat! It's a must read for sure!

3.5 stars.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I don't read a huge amount of YA books anymore but there's something about A.V. Geiger that makes me come back. It might be a bit of a guilty pleasure but I enjoy her books because they're not overly sappy and she does write a good climax, even when the beginning of this book was just a tiny bit slow to start.
Nora is accepted into a summer program where she has to develop something new. When she's able to put her coding skills to the test, she barely hesitates but it leads to twists and turns that has the reader guessing who did it and what happened in the process.
What I like about Geiger is that she clearly puts thought into her books. This one involved coding so while it went over my head at times, it felt authentic. Just like with the interrogations from the Follow Me Back series. She's able to write compelling characters that aren't one note. I liked Nora and you can really see her grow from beginning to end. Without meeting too many supporting characters, you get a sense of the cliques within this techy school. Every kid has a skill that is used to push forward the plot and comes to light in the climax. There's always a good amount of tension in Geiger's books that makes you want to read more and figure out what happened. This book had a twist that I barely called before it was revealed and I liked that I didn't catch it immediately.
It would be higher rated if it wasn't so slow to start and the love connection between the two main characters wasn't as strong as it could be. They worked better as partner and there was little chemistry between them.
Overall, it's a solid book with an interesting plot that's fun to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for a complimentary copy. I voluntarily reviewed this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Scared Little Rabbits
By: A.V. Geiger

*REVIEW* ⭐⭐⭐
I have always enjoyed mystery stories centered around prep schools. Scared Little Rabbits is that type of story, but the plot just didn't grab my attention like I expected it to. The story is intriguing but definitely on a more juvenile level. I do think young adult readers will enjoy this story because it's teens unsupervised solving a mystery. So, for the proper audience, this book is ideal, but it didn't suit my taste personally.

Full confession time: I saw the summary of the book and thought, hmm, that has potential and accepted the invitation to read it on NetGalley. Then I saw it was YA and started to second guess my decision to read it. I am heartily ashamed of myself for doubting my initial interest.

Scared Little Rabbits is a fun, twisty thriller set at an elite prep school during their summer program. While I found a lot of the tech-speak to be beyond me, as a middle-aged person, and some of the teen-drama made me roll my eyes on more than one occasion, I was fully invested in the outcome. A.V. Geiger does a great job creating and maintaining tension throughout the novel. I cared about Nora, was dying to find out what Eleanor's secret was, and compelled to race to the ending. I think this is the kind of book I'd have loved in middle school.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw that A.V. Geiger wrote a new book, I had to read it. I loved the Follow Me Back books, full of open-mouthed twists and turns. Scared Little Rabbits is like that, too!

Even if I had difficulty believing in the student's disappearance for a bit, when everything unfolded, I was blindsided by all the twists (in a good way) to doubt it anymore. I was completely glued to the pages, wanting to know more and more until the end.

Many thanks to Sourcebook Fire for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC!

I was so excited to dive into this YA thriller. We got gals who code, murder, virtual reality and... uh, lots of romance?

Hmm. So maybe the direction this book went took me by surprise a little bit. It takes a slow pace with the good thrills and I found that the relationship aspect of Scared Little Rabbit seemed dominant at times.

I really did like Nora's character, but her relationship with Maddox was nothing special.

Overall, A.V. Geiger did deliver what was promised- it just wasn't what I personally expected. I am going to keep this review short and may add some other thoughts later.

real rating: 3.2/5

I really struggle with books like this one. They aren't especially relatable. This one might be about summer camp, at face value, but it's essentially a boarding school. And one where the teen are largely left to their own devices. Not only do their days have no structure, they're essentially unsupervised. While that might be some wish fulfillment for teen readers it's not very plausible. I did like the tech and social media elements. But the love story and elaborate escape plots are hard to believe. THe actual writing isn't bad but the plot struggles.

Nora is 16 years old and a coder who attends a summer program. She meets Maddox there and there is a lot of suspense and question about who is really is. There is a lot of mystery about him which I liked and suspense in the story. The characters were developed well and enjoyable.

I had high hopes for this book and it started off strong but that soon devolved into typical high school stuff and I just didn't enjoy it. I adore YA thrillers, and the setting of a prestigious boarding school had me excited to read it. However the book wasn't really that thrilling. The plot is also extremely slow, nothing really happens until you are 70% through the book, if you make it that far. I also just didn't like any of the characters and by the time stuff started happening I just didn't care anymore. Not a good fit for me.

Scared Little Rabbits caught my attention from the moment I read the description and held it with the intense mystery buildup that climaxed at the end of the story.

The main character, Nora, was one I think a lot of readers will relate to. She had a lot of insecurities, uncertainties, and not a lot of confidence in her abilities at the beginning of the story. I felt that uncertainty in her made it easier to relate, and personally made me enjoy the story more. Author A.V. Geiger did a fantastic job of writing characters that were fun to read and had an air of mystery surrounded them. The suspense throughout this novel was intense as I never quite knew who to trust and who was lying.

I quite enjoyed the fact that this novel had a lot of different genres wound through it. While it is clearly a young adult fiction novel, it had aspects of romance and the mystery suspense that gave this book a little step up above others. I had a strong dislike for some characters and loved others and had some strong emotions drawn from me as I was reading this book. I love when authors can draw strong emotions out. I had an idea about the ending, but I was thoroughly shocked when the “bad guy” was revealed.

This book is a must read for all YA fiction lovers who also love a lot of mystery and a little romance. I’ll be picking up more of Geiger’s novels soon.

Title: Scared Little Rabbits
Author: A.V. Geiger
Genre: YA, suspense
Rating: 4 out of 5

Nora was thrilled to be chosen for the Maker Project: three weeks at the elite Winthrop Academy where she’ll have the chance to put her coding skills to use on the dazzling new project she’s sure she’ll have an idea for. But everyone seems to know each other already and have formed their groups, and Nora’s left on the fringes, watching.

Until Maddox befriends her and they have a great idea for their project. But Maddox’s girlfriend is atop the hierarchy at the Maker Project and making her angry is the last thing Nora wants to do. Then someone winds up dead…and Nora is left wondering if anyone is who they say they are.

I’m not a huge social media person, but I can see where the InstaLove App would be hugely popular, especially for wallflowers like Nora. I liked her well enough, even if her social awkwardness was sometimes a bit much. Surely she wasn’t really that naïve? I enjoyed this book for what it was and read it in one sitting, but nothing in it was completely unexpected (except maybe the scene with Nora and the pool).

A.V. Geiger is an epidemiologist. Scared Little Rabbits is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Sourcebooks Fire via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.)

When a girl’s dream summer camp turns into a murder scene, her life hangs into balance. It’s now up to her to clear her name and try to find the murderer before they find her.

If you like summer camp / murder mysteries / YA high school characters, you will really enjoy this thriller.

This story was a little up and down for me. I was hooked into the nerdy, tech-heavy vibes that the summer camp brought out, but some of the characters were not my favorites, especially the main male interest. Right away I could tell that his weird charm wasn’t going to be enough for her, and I was hoping that she would connect with someone else.

But in the end, the whole murder mystery portion of the book was what got me through to the end, and that first chapter had me hooked! I gave it a 3 out of 5 star rating. It was a great ending that left me satisfied.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started Scared Little Rabbits. It starts off as a thriller but quickly morphs into a teen drama filled with mean girls, outcasts, and cute boys.

Set at a summer program for tech geniuses, it follows teenage engineer Nora, as she navigates the social landscape of the program. There she meets Maddox, a seemingly bad boy, on the social media app known as InstaLove. Maddox, the former longtime boyfriend of program sweetheart and billionaire daughter Eleanor, is interested in Nora as well, and the two pair up to write a module for InstaLove to showcase at the end of the program. But when Eleanor goes missing, secrets are exposed and everyone starts to wonder what’s real and what’s for appearances.

Scared Little Rabbits does an excellent job of imagining an exploitative social media application in InstaLove. As an engineer, I’m always fascinated to see how people reference technology in media, and Geiger did an excellent job. She drops in references to bits of code and programs seamlessly with her story in a way that feels natural. A large part of the story centers around AR, wearable tech, and privacy. It provides a unique commentary on the ethics of AR and its impact on our world.

As far as the story goes, I thought it jumped around quite a bit in a way that often made it difficult to follow. It switches points of view from Nora to Maddox to journal entries from Eleanor. The technical part was well-executed, but the story was lacking at times and dragged at several points. Overall I enjoyed it!

Thank you to @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for the review copy!

I really didn't get into the story until about 70% and at that point nothing surprising happened the ending fell flat and unfortunately this book just wasn't for me.

I think if you like the slow burn thriller/mystery you will enjoy this, so check it out for yourself.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.