Penny Allen and Tyler Beck had been best friends for years, but everything changed during the turbulent adolescent years. Penny never felt good enough, as her mother had left her and her father many years earlier. Her father was the town hero of Liberty, Connecticut, due to his ownership of beach homes, building a tourism industry, but this only added to her feelings of not being good enough. He continued to refuse to discuss Penny’s mother with her, or tell her where her mother was. Her obsession with her mother’s disappearance resulted in 29 scrapbooks, a page for every day that her mother was not home. Penny wanted to have a record of everything her mother had missed when she returned. Penny devised her own plan for finding her mother. Through a set of circumstances, Tyler became her ally in this search. Author Heidi Pitre has written a young adult romance novel titled 2,697 Pages. The relationship between Penny and Tyler during this search is complicated, with many loving and hurtful moments.

The storyline includes a number of friends and realistic high school relationship dramas. The emotional tensions, romantic pressures and use of alcohol are accurately described. Some parents may choose to read the book first, to be able to have informative conversations with their young adult offspring. The choices made by the adolescents in the book would be worthy topics for discussion. The flow of the story is fast-paced and engages the reader from the first page to the last. Heidi Pitre's young adult fictional work, 2,697 Pages, will be enjoyed by the thoughtful young adult reader.

Penny's mother disappeared from her life when she was a young child. Since then, she has kept a page in her scrapbook for every day. The 2,697 pages, which give this novel its title, are filled with pictures of her, her father, her friends, and anything that interests her. But the desire to have a mother in her life leads her to a boy she has an unpleasant past with and a road trip to find the woman that left her so long ago. This trip down memory lane might not end in the answers she wants, but maybe the reward is worth the risk in this novel by Heidi Pitre.

In this young adult novel titled 2,697 Pages, we meet a diverse cast of characters that are both deep and relatable. Penny is such a sweet heroine, but her mind is stuck in the past and she isn't allowing herself to enjoy the present. Tyler is the boy that she has a history with, but that she ends up still having feelings for. They're such a cute pairing, and their relationship throughout the book is a rollercoaster that author Heidi Pitre has crafted so wonderfully. What I especially appreciate about this novel is that not everything ends happily ever after. I don't enjoy young adult novels that end tied up in a pretty bow. I want some victories and some losses and this book gives us just that. The dialogue is the shining star here, bringing the characters to life and making them feel like a friend that lives right next door. Overall, a strong and enjoyable book that I couldn't put down!