Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this title.

3.5 stars

I think if you enjoyed Simon Vs the Homosapiens this might be a good choice for you. I haven't been super into young adult books, but this one actually worked pretty well for me. When Riley is talking about hating PE class and not being good at sports, I have never related to something more. That brought back a whole lot of memories from high school. That part made me audibly chuckle.

The religion aspect of this story was a little tough for me. I love where we ended up, but getting there was frustrating. The pastor is one of my least favorite characters in a book ever. He reminded me of people I knew when I was a teenager and he was just awful. I enjoyed the big moment with all of the girls toward the end a lot.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I was going to, and I would definitely recommend this to others.

This book is AMAZING! It made me laugh SO much & hero so seen. And the ending totally made me tear up. This book is going to be so important for so many people who have previously felt unseen, judged or even totally alone with their thoughts & feelings before. It deals with religion in such an honest & open way, and it felt really having to see how these characters dealt with & overcame their obstacles. Highly recommend this book!!

I loved this book and the characters so much. I was laughing the whole time and having the best time on their journey. I’d recommend it to anyone. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy. :)

I love LGBTQ + books, but not so much religious books. The book combined them both in a palatable way. I hope this helps heal religious trauma for people in the community. I enjoyed it, though it was predictable at times.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group for this ARC!

When I was 5 years old I realized I loved girls and that in part thanks to my Sunday school teacher but I also heard what my pastor and other church goers had to say about the LGBT community so I hid it. This book brought those feelings back but also healed something inside of me.

It's an easy and quick read that I ate up in a single sitting. Keep in mind this is YA so the characters aren't completely matured and make mistakes.

All in all a great read

This religious based sapphic YA romance story follows the incredible journey of Riley and Julia as they discover both the horrors and potential for friendship that comes along with being part of a religious community. Riley has had to defend not only herself and her sexuality, but the fact that her older sister had an abortion and was publicly humiliated by the church and their community. Even though leaving the congregation was the best decision for Riley, she still struggles with the lack of community and the fact that her two best friends/siblings Ben and Julia, are a product of the pastor that shunned her family. And to make matters worse, when Riley gets into a fight with one of her sisters’ former friend Amanda, the only option she has in order to avoid a suspension is to participate in church camp for spring break. The very same camp that Julia and Ben participate in every year and is run of course by their pastor father. So Riley decides that the best way to get back at her former pastor for embarrassing her family is to commit all seven deadly sins rather than embrace their virtues. Riley shows the other girls and Julia that maybe it's okay to look beyond what is considered right or wrong and think for themselves. Through late night binge eating, capture the flag, forbidden movie watching, and indulging in a little shopping, Riley not only begins to succeed in her mission, but she happens to fall a lot harder than she ever imagined for the one person who can never love her back.

Riley is such a joy, mainly because she manages to be both mature and immature for her age. Her spunky, witty, and outgoing personality made for the perfect contrast to Julia’s more reserved, carefully planned out, self conscious one. I like how they both brought out different sides to each other. There were definitely several times when Riley would have benefitted from not running her mouth, but I think that made her all the more relatable, especially how emotional teenagers typically tend to be. I felt her struggle to embrace her sexuality in a town that never made her feel welcomed. Her feelings for someone essentially off limits was extremely heartfelt and I loved how Riley handles showing Julia how much she cares for her without pressuring her into something she wasn’t ready for. The hand holding was truly sweet and adorable. Finally, her growth from the beginning to the end of the novel was very inspiring, not only was she able to continually stand up for herself, her beliefs, and her friends, but she was able to learn the importance of getting to know people before passing judgement on them and how hard it is for people to break away from something they spent their whole life believing in.

Julia on the other hand was very much your typical church girl. Extremely reserved, calculated, rule follower, and devoted. Always wanting to do the right thing and please the people around her, Julia’s internal struggle was especially heartbreaking. Stuck in the middle between her family and her best friend, she constantly struggled between following her heart and listening to her head/years of brainwashing. I love how patient Riley was with Julia, I just wish Julia had realized her feelings sooner and had been able to act on them rather than hide them. I’m glad in the end her heart won out over her fear. At the same time I can’t imagine how hard it is for queer kids figuring out their sexuality in a homophobic religious town where your father is the preacher and responsible for the fear instilled in you from a young age. Her growth was definitely admirable, and while her journey to figuring out her sexuality was rough and complicated, selfishly I just wish she had figured it out sooner so that there were more shared romantic moments between her and Riley.

I also really enjoyed the sense of friendship that developed throughout the story, especially between Riley, Julia, and the rest of the church cabinmates. The side characters, along with Riley’s parents and sister were all very charming, funny, and had distinguishing personalities. The fact that Riley’s parents were willing to give up their place in the church and community to support their daughters was super heartwarming, especially in regards to the sharp contrast of Julia’s parents being controlling and manipulative. I was a little worried that the story would be too preachy or over the top for someone like myself who is non-religious, but I definitely appreciated how the author didn’t shy away from the dangers, reality, and unfortunate outcomes of religious communities that thrive on using fear to control their members. Even though I know that some religious communities are different and can be more accepting than others, I know the pressure and struggle to fit in is especially hard for teenagers and people figuring out their sexuality. So I thought the portrayal of what a healthy/positive support system vs. a non-conforming, strict, and fear based system looks like was genius.

Overall I loved the message and how Riley proved to her friends and community that there are other options outside of a controlling religion based on fear and sometimes you just have to be brave enough to fight for what you know is right, even if you are in the minority. Riley was able to not only prove her worthiness to an unworthy dictator, but she was able to turn her anger into change and question those who deserve to be questioned. Despite the very serious topics of abortion, homophobia, coming out, prejudice, and religious intolerance, the author does a fantastic job of presenting alternatives and creating characters that are both real, unapologetic, smart, witty, and hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, even though I was hoping for a slightly deeper romance and a more satisfying/resolved ending, but then again, you can't change religious intolerance and homophobia overnight.

I hope the author healed how she needed to by writing this book. Ironic for a book bashing the church (which I’m so here for) was quite preachy. And certainly not gay enough. Not as gay as advertised. Enjoyable for the most part but fell flat of my expectations from the marketing around it. The romance was such a minor part of the story when it was suggested it would be the main thing.

80/100 or 4.0 stars

This will be an important book for so many YA/Teen readers, and I am happy more books that focus on this topic are being released. The topic of course being LGBTQIA+ and religion/faith. Since I was not the target age range for this story, there were things that didn't work for me as a reader, but at the same time it is good it was included for the people/readers that need to see it. This was a good as I was hoping it would be and more!

“I think you’re allowed to be a little horrible when you’re having a gay crisis at church camp.” This story started a little slow but wow, when it picked up it was wonderful! The storytelling, the characters, the religious commentary, it was all wonderful! It was also very emotional as all of the characters learned to deal with the emotional response to being part of a very restrictive and hate filled religious environment. But it didn’t hate on religion or people for being religious, just opposed those who use religion to hurt others. It was so well done and the romance was so cute!

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Books for Young Readers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was very hesitant about this book, but it healed some part of my little queer, Christian heart.

This book includes:
🏕️ friends to lovers
🏕️ queer storyline
🏕️ complex themes around “the church”
🏕️ receptive arcs
🏕️ the seven deadly sins
🏕️ YA storyline
🏕️ very clever chapter titles

As someone who grew up in a very Christian, midwest community, came out as queer in college, and struggled with my faith, I’m always nervous about books like these. I’m worried we’re just going to completely shit on religion and faith. While I have mixed feelings about “the church” as an institution, I still believe in fellowship and community. This book was such a pleasant surprise. Not only was it witty and very relatable, but it challenged a lot of the same ideas I grew up with, while also sharing the positives of faith and the people of the church.

I normally don’t do contemporary young adult books, but this handled some mature themes in a very sensitive and thoughtful way. Our main character was flawed and self righteous, but her growth was encouraging to watch.

There were plenty of laugh out loud moments, but there were also sentimental ones too.

My two critiques:
1. The file I got sent for this arc was hella messed up with crazy formatting which made it a little difficult to read.
2. I needed a pinch of more detail in there. Sometimes I couldn’t figure out who was talking.

Saved! meets my literal high school church camp experience in a laugh out loud combo. Friends, I this book had me ROLLING. It tickled the part of my brain I thought I had repressed so well and reminded me that even though church camp was dark and full of horrors, the friends I made there were something to treasure, too. 5 enthusiastic stars.

This is the perfect read for a summer of deconstruction! Riley is our bisexual drama queen who just landed a main role in Shrek The Musical but she couldn't control her anger long enough to avoid slapping her sister's ex bestie! Julia is our closeted lesbian no one expects to get in trouble. Riley and Julia have been besties for years but when Julia's pastor father is trying to tear them apart during summer camp,will he succeed?! Honestly if you've been following me on Insta for like the last 5 months then you haven't been able to escape this book in my stories! I've been PUMPED about it,I had been hearing about it for a month before I FINALLY pre-ordered it but I couldn't wait any longer so I headed to NetGalley. I will be rereading next month,I can't wait to get the final version in my hands!!

I first want to say that the chapter titles were absolutely amazing! This book is great. I love the way this book portrayed different types of religious trauma. Riley's attempt at committing all the seven deadly sins was a really nice additive. All the characters in the this book were great. It showed how they were all so complex. I love the different point of views of religion that we got throughout all the girls in the book, I think it was a great portrayal of the different ways religion can affect people. The romance was such a sweet bonus of reading this book. Overall, this was such a sweet yet powerful book.

Thank you to Net galley for providing This book to me in exchange for an honest review

I honestly didn't know what I got myself into when I said I'd read this book. BUT, I was not disappointed. Our gal, Riley, is so strong and resilient. She is a bisexual queen. She will stand up for the people she cares for every time. Hannah went through something she shouldn't have had to, so having Riley definitely helped with that instance. Love a sibling bond! Speaking of siblings, Julia and Ben were so funny, being the pastor's kids. They were mischievous and very compliant to what their father needed. Also, Amanda was such a mean girl at the start. Such a privileged girl, but then we got to know her more. So I tolerate her more now.

I guess I should have expected this book would be within a religious institution, but I didn't fully read that through. I loved the camp and the way that religion and sins play into the modern lives of teenagers. This book did get down to a deeper meaning and it was so fun to read. I haven't read a book that quickly in a while. It was so light and fun to read!

5/5 stars for camp, living authentically, and friendship.

**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this free review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Riley stopped going to her congregation over a year ago after realizing this was no place for a family like hers. Unfortunately, as a punishment for slapping a classmate, Riley finds herself at the church's spring break camp. Anything is better than a suspension, right? Thankfully, her best friends Julia and Ben (who are also the pastor's children) will be there to make things more bearable. Instead of following the guidelines for the week, Riley sets out to commit a sin for every day they're at the camp - all seven deadly sins. Her required essay when she returns will also be focused on what she's "learned" while at camp and how Pastor Young should not be the revered person the town thinks he is. Unfortunately for Riley, these plans do not work out as she had hoped. Instead, she's now at risk of losing her best friend and crush - Julia. Church camp has never been so full of drama and emotions.

I almost DNF'd this one multiple times. It was so predictable and full of cliches that it was painful to get through at times. The characters lacked the depth required to really make you like them - or even root for them. Everything just felt very surface-level and rushed. The concept of the novel is great, but just lacks what it needs to be memorable. In writing this review, I'm struggling to remember what I read and I just finished the book mere minutes ago. I had such high hopes given some of the earlier reviews, but this just fell so flat.

3 Stars

Say a Little Prayer follows Riley as she heads to church camp, despite her complicated relationship with both the church and her town’s pastor. I thought this was a really fun book that explored interesting perspectives on religion. It was a quick and lighthearted read while also touching on deeper topics. However, I felt the characters could have been more developed, and the romance fell flat. It was very surface-level and suffered from too much miscommunication.

Overall, it had a great concept, but I just wanted more from the characters and relationships.

I really liked the concept of this book, but ultimately it wasn't for me and I didn't get invested until the very end.

Jenna Voris is quickly becoming one of my favorite YA contemporary authors. This book does an amazing job balancing tough topics with humor, which is due in large part to how strong of a narrator Riley is. Her voice was so strong it even invaded the chapter titles, which often made me laugh out loud. Although I was never a member, I grew up in close proximity to churches like this, and they've hurt a lot of people I love. Riley's wrath towards Pastor Young and his congregation was all too understandable. What makes this book so special is that so were Julia's relationship with her faith, and Greer and Amanda's fear, and Hannah's grace. Say A Little Prayer is gay as hell, but it also deeply explores all the shades of gray.

4.5 ✩

so, so good!!!! the chapter titles were so excellent and so funny, really brought an extra cherry to this book.

the entire thing was very comedic and also very real, and it filled me with lots of anger at the injustice of it all at times. i really liked how it explored the power religion holds on a community and specifically how scary it can be when someone seems to hold all the power.

the characters were all SO special and the heart of the story. Julia and Ben were my absolute favorites but I loved being in Riley’s head.

removing a few points because of the end, because it felt so abrupt and like a lot was left unresolved or resolved off page and too well, which left me kind of hanging. also i personally needed to throw some punches at the pastor.

but this is just such a good story and i hope a lot of baby gays read it and realize the happy ending to come for them ♡︎

This was such a cute book and one that touches on the realities of religious trauma in such a relatable way. I loved Riley and felt she was fiercely loyal to those she loves and isn’t afraid to stick her neck out for others. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys LGBTQ+ coming of age stories, with a heavy dose of church camp trauma healing.