I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Riley quietly left church a year ago when she realized there was no place for a bi girl in her congregation. But it wasn’t until the pastor shunned her older sister for getting an abortion that she really wanted to burn it all down.

It’s just her luck, then, that she’s sent to the principal’s office for slapping a girl talking smack about her sister—and in order to avoid suspension, she has to spend spring break at church camp. The only saving grace is that she’ll be there with her best friend, Julia. Even if Julia’s dad is the pastor. And he’s in charge of camp. But Riley won’t let a technicality like “repenting” get in the way of her true mission. Instead of spending the week embracing the seven heavenly virtues, she decides to commit all seven deadly sins. If she can show the other campers that sometimes being a little bad is for the greater good, she could start a righteous revolution! What could possibly go wrong? Aside from falling for the pastor’s daughter . . .

Short and Sweet Review

A year ago Riley left the church after realizing that there’s no place for a bi person in her congregation but what really ticked her off was when Pastor Young shamed her sister Hannah for having an abortion, after that Riley was ready to go scorched earth on the church and everyone involved. When Riley gets into an altercation with Hannah’s former friends she has the option to go to the church camp during spring break or be suspended. The only bright light is that her best friend Julia will be there but Julia is also the pastor’s daughter. When Riley gets to camp she learns that they’ll be focusing on seven virtues and she decides to commit all the seven deadly sins. Riley just wants to convince her fellow camp goers that sometimes being a little bad can be good, the only thing she doesn’t expect to happen on this trip is to fall for Julia.

Say a Little Prayer was a good book, Riley is our main character and she has a negative relationship with the church seeing as her views don’t coincide with what Pastor Young is telling the members. When Riley ends up going to church camp she’s tasked with writing an essay about her experience and that’s when the light bulb goes off and she decides that instead of talking about the seven heavenly virtues she’s going to commit one of the seven deadly sins each day to prove that a little sinning can be useful. Riley is at camp with her friend Julia who is also the pastors daughter so she doesn’t share her plan because it would be awkward telling your best friend how much you hate their dad. Other camp goers include her sister Hannah’s former friends who ended up ditching her after she had her abortion. We see Riley deal with all of her emotions surrounding how people treated her sister and also how Pastor Young was the catalyst. I enjoyed seeing Riley execute her plan, but I also liked seeing her become friends with the other campers, especially when she went into the week with the idea of secluding herself. I will say I wasn’t into the romance mainly because we know that Riley likes Julia but Julia doesn’t really express it until 70% through the book. I do think the pacing at the end was off and everything was resolved too quickly because of that. The ending was interesting it was kind of like trying to get a point across but who knows if that point actually got through.

Overall, I did enjoy this book, the ending was kind of off for me but everything before that was pretty solid. I found this book to be relatable in the way that it sheds a light on why some people aren’t interested in going to church and Pastor Young has a very judgmental and holier than thou attitude, so in that way we get to see Riley’s solution to this.