Best of Family & Relationships
Best of Family & Relationships
"So Many Books, So Little Time!"
High School Epic
by
Hannah R. Goodman
Genre/s
Fiction, Teen and Young Adult, Romance
Publish Date
October 9, 2025
Short Description
After her father vanishes, Dani Fetter begins high school already carrying the weight of abandonment. She expects her best friends to support her, but they prioritize parties, hookups, and popularity instead.
Left behind, Dani meets Kevin Martin, an outsider who seems to give her everything her world is missing. Until betrayal cuts deep, leaving her reeling once more. Dani's circle keeps reshaping again and again: new friends like Ryan O’Leary offer comfort, while old wounds resurface.
Through each season of high school, Dani is tested through heartbreak, mistakes, and hilarious missteps, as she wrestles with who she is and who she wants to be.
Told in a unique blend of letters and chapters, High School Epic captures the chaos of teenage life in the early 1990s with raw honesty, humor, and heart.
$17.46
Book's Awards
Description
With the dust still unsettled from the unexpected abandonment of her wanderlust—and mentally ill—father, DANI FETTER begins an epic ride, which will be the next four years of high school. The transition should be seamless with her middle school best friends by her side. But then they—like her father—abandon her when she fails to keep up with their drinking and upperclassmen hook-ups. Enter KEVIN MARTIN, who exudes Bad Boy vibes yet doesn’t participate in the typical high school B.S. that her old friends do. KEVIN and DANI'S intense relationship is cut short by a betrayal so big that DANI’S childhood enemy becomes her best friend. Sophomore year brings new friends, particularly RYAN, who understands her heartbreak and might even be in love with her. With the onset of junior year, DANI tries to embrace her peers’ hooking-up and drinking lifestyle, only to crash and burn (sometimes hilariously) each time. With her senior year, an unexpected encounter with her father causes more confusion and chaos. Through it all, there is a constant back-and-forth with KEVIN that evolves into a love triangle with RYAN. Will this love triangle be resolved by the end of high school, and will DANI get the closure from her father she desperately needs? As is the nature of high school and life, nothing happens as expected.
DANI’S epic ride is a unique, four-year odyssey told in both epistolary and traditional chapter form, authentically showing the growth of a young woman who must overcome the psychological obstacles of adolescent loss and heartbreak.
Book Trailer
Reviews Of The Book On BooksShelf
I really liked the way the book balances comedy with heavier themes like family rupture and the way teenagers try to make sense of adult chaos. The emotional moments don’t feel forced, and the story gives you space to sit with them before moving on. It’s the kind of book where you finish a chapter and immediately think, “Yep, I remember feeling like that.” Smart, funny, and surprisingly moving.
The romantic thread is a standout because it’s not just “cute,” it’s loaded with timing, nerves, and that intense teenage sense of destiny. The chemistry builds through small interactions and that electric feeling of being noticed by the person you can’t stop thinking about. It gave me that butterflies-in-the-stomach reaction without becoming cheesy. The tension between what Danielle wants and what she’s afraid to do is written really well.
If you like character-driven stories, this delivers. The friendships feel layered, with loyalty and friction sitting side by side, like real teen friendships do. I liked that the book doesn’t pretend best friends are always healthy or always kind, but it still shows why people cling to each other. The dialogue feels natural and has a great rhythm, which kept me turning pages.
Danielle is the kind of narrator you root for because she’s sharp, self-aware, and still figuring herself out in real time. Her internal commentary made me laugh, but it also lands emotionally when family stuff surfaces. The book captures that complicated teen reality where you can be cracking up one minute and spiraling the next. It’s heartfelt, but it keeps its edge.
What hooked me was the time-capsule vibe. The music references, school dynamics, and pre-smartphone social rules are woven in naturally. It’s nostalgic without trying too hard, and the details make the setting feel lived-in. I also appreciated how the story shows how “small town” can magnify everything, from crushes to rumors.
I blew through High School Epic faster than I expected, mostly because Danielle’s voice feels so real. The book nails that specific high-school mixture of big feelings, weird inside jokes, and tiny moments that somehow become life-defining. I loved the humor, especially in the friend-group scenes, because it feels messy in the most believable way. If you’re into coming-of-age stories that don’t sugarcoat the awkward parts, this one hits.
