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Torn
Two strangers embark on a secret road trip; a pregnant girl from Texas with no options and a grieving husband with an agenda, his GPS set for North Carolina. Be careful what you pray for.
Imagine being a girl of limited means on the cusp of adulthood without a choice in navigating the course of your own life. Orphaned at fifteen, now almost eighteen, Merilee Stillwater finds herself pregnant and so frighteningly ill she cannot attend school in a state where a woman’s right to choose is not an option. Hopeless and bound to the morals of her foster parents, Merilee is given a miracle. A choice. And a ride out of Texas to end her misery and change her destiny, if she can find the courage to risk it. Torn is a riveting tale of one girl’s struggle to work through what it means to become an adult and take charge of her life.
Imagine being a girl of limited means on the cusp of adulthood without a choice in navigating the course of your own life. Orphaned at fifteen, now almost eighteen, Merilee Stillwater finds herself pregnant and so frighteningly ill she cannot attend school in a state where a woman’s right to choose is not an option. Hopeless and bound to the morals of her foster parents, Merilee is given a miracle. A choice. And a ride out of Texas to end her misery and change her destiny, if she can find the courage to risk it. Torn is a riveting tale of one girl’s struggle to work through what it means to become an adult and take charge of her life.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2024
2 people are currently reading
1441 people want to read
About the author
Mary Flinn
14 books48 followersA native of North Carolina, award-winning author Mary Flinn long ago fell in love with her state’s mountains and its coast, creating the backdrops for her series of novels, The One, Second Time’s a Charm, Three Gifts, and A Forever Man. With degrees from both the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and East Carolina University, Flinn has retired from her first career as a speech pathologist in the NC public schools since 1981. Writing a novel had always been a dream for Flinn, who began crafting the pages of The One, when her younger daughter left for college at Appalachian State University in 2009. The characters in this book have continued to call to her, wanting more of their story told, which bred the next three books in the series.
Flinn has recently been the recipient of the Reviewers’ Choice First Place Award for Romance Novel in the Reader Views 2011 Literary Book Awards, as well as the Pacific Book Review Best Romance Novel of 2011 for Three Gifts. Second Time’s a Charm, also released in 2011, won an Honorable Mention in the Reader Views Reviewers’ Choice Awards. The Nest, a stand-alone from the Kyle and Chelsea series, won a B.R.A.G. Medallion book award in 2015. Breaking Out, Flinn's second stand-alone was published in 2014. A Girl Like That, released in 2015 is the winner of the Reader Views Literary Book Award, as well as the B.R.A.G. Medallion.
Mary Flinn lives with her husband in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she is at work on her next novel. They have two adult daughters.
Flinn has recently been the recipient of the Reviewers’ Choice First Place Award for Romance Novel in the Reader Views 2011 Literary Book Awards, as well as the Pacific Book Review Best Romance Novel of 2011 for Three Gifts. Second Time’s a Charm, also released in 2011, won an Honorable Mention in the Reader Views Reviewers’ Choice Awards. The Nest, a stand-alone from the Kyle and Chelsea series, won a B.R.A.G. Medallion book award in 2015. Breaking Out, Flinn's second stand-alone was published in 2014. A Girl Like That, released in 2015 is the winner of the Reader Views Literary Book Award, as well as the B.R.A.G. Medallion.
Mary Flinn lives with her husband in Wilmington, North Carolina, where she is at work on her next novel. They have two adult daughters.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 16, 2024
Award-winning author Mary Flinn is known for writing complicated and nuanced novels, often with a romantic twist. In her newest novel, TORN, she proves a novel can get to the heart of a matter in ways simple logic may not by tackling the story of a teenage Indigenous girl with a difficult pregnancy who is in foster care and is denied the right to choose to abort her child by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade and Texas’s harsh abortion laws.
Whatever side of the abortion issue you are on, TORN will give you much to think about, but while it is issue-driven, more importantly, it is character-driven. We are introduced to a group of characters so real that you will feel you know them, you will want to know what happens to them after the novel ends, and you will miss them for days after you put down the book. Flinn achieves this by not offering easy answers to the abortion debate or black-and-white situations for her characters. In fact, the title reflects the difficulties, as clarified by the novel’s dedication: “To all who are torn about a woman’s right to choose. You are not alone.”
The novel opens with Merilee, an almost-eighteen-year-old high school senior, running from chemistry class to the bathroom to deal with morning sickness. Soon everyone in the school knows Merilee is pregnant by her chemistry lab partner and boyfriend, Micah. Merilee’s complications ensue because both her parents have died and she is in the foster care system. Her foster parents and Micah’s parents don’t believe in abortion so they want her to have the baby and give it up for adoption. Merilee agrees to this, but she has an extremely difficult pregnancy, including suffering from HG (hyperemesis gravidarum), which causes severe nausea and vomiting.
Having to stay home because of her illness, Merilee is assigned a homebound teacher, Dani, who soon becomes her confidant. Besides teaching, Dani finds herself holding Merilee’s hair as Merilee vomits. In time, Merilee confesses to her that she wants the pregnancy to end. But because she lives in Texas, she cannot have an abortion. Dani decides Merilee should have the right to choose what becomes of her child and her own body, so she makes secret arrangements for Merilee to travel to North Carolina to have an abortion.
Enter Theo, a former professional baseball player and co-owner of a bar, who agrees to drive Merilee to North Carolina to have an abortion. Theo feels called upon to help Merilee because he recently lost his wife, Liv. Liv, a friend of Dani’s, was also Merilee’s biology teacher, and Theo remembers how highly Liv thought of Merilee. More personally, Liv died after having two miscarriages and then trying to carry a third child to term, only to have severe complications. When her life became endangered, the doctor was too afraid to perform an abortion to save the mother and it was too late for Theo to drive her to Kansas where abortion is legal. Theo does not want to see Merilee risk her life so he comes to her rescue.
What follows is an odyssey across state lines to find a solution for Merilee, but this will be no easy journey. Not only is Merilee concerned about vomiting in Theo’s truck, but she has mixed feelings about Micah, who basically has dumped her now and may be in a relationship with a girl she thought was her friend. Worse, at a restaurant in Tuscaloosa, Merilee and Theo bump into a former acquaintance of Theo’s who is now a detective and quickly realizes Theo must be helping Merilee to have an abortion. The law allows bounty hunters to report abortion attempts. If he reports Theo to the police, Theo could be faced with legal problems, as could Merilee, and Dani if it’s found out she helped them.
A large cast of supporting characters are also involved, including Liv’s parents, who live in North Carolina and plan to help Theo and Merilee. Merilee’s foster parents do not know where Merilee has gone. Micah is left at home with his own family issues to sort out. And after things in North Carolina do not go as planned, Merilee and Theo return to Texas with a lot of explaining to do, and a lot of angry backlash and misunderstandings to deal with from a host of people.
TORN will continually surprise you. As Theo thinks at one point while they are driving, “There was so much to digest about Merilee Stillwater, whose life changed drastically day by day. Theo couldn’t fathom what it would have been like trying to keep up with her over the past three years.” Merilee has hopes and dreams for her future and she also has a lot of baggage from her past due to her parents’ untimely deaths and her time spent in the foster care system. So many people have come into her life, some to love and help her, some who try to love her but are misguided, and some who simply want to throw her under the bus. Issues of right and wrong, sex and love, prejudice and forgiveness all rise to the surface and seek resolution before the novel is over.
I can assure you that by the time you finish reading TORN, you will have opened your eyes to both sides of the abortion argument, you will grow to accept there is no black and white, and you will wish everyone who finds themselves with an unwanted pregnancy could have the kind of support Merilee finds.
Get ready for laughs, tears, and that cathartic feeling that only the best novelists can provide. After you read TORN, you will not feel torn about wanting to read everything else Mary Flinn has written.
Whatever side of the abortion issue you are on, TORN will give you much to think about, but while it is issue-driven, more importantly, it is character-driven. We are introduced to a group of characters so real that you will feel you know them, you will want to know what happens to them after the novel ends, and you will miss them for days after you put down the book. Flinn achieves this by not offering easy answers to the abortion debate or black-and-white situations for her characters. In fact, the title reflects the difficulties, as clarified by the novel’s dedication: “To all who are torn about a woman’s right to choose. You are not alone.”
The novel opens with Merilee, an almost-eighteen-year-old high school senior, running from chemistry class to the bathroom to deal with morning sickness. Soon everyone in the school knows Merilee is pregnant by her chemistry lab partner and boyfriend, Micah. Merilee’s complications ensue because both her parents have died and she is in the foster care system. Her foster parents and Micah’s parents don’t believe in abortion so they want her to have the baby and give it up for adoption. Merilee agrees to this, but she has an extremely difficult pregnancy, including suffering from HG (hyperemesis gravidarum), which causes severe nausea and vomiting.
Having to stay home because of her illness, Merilee is assigned a homebound teacher, Dani, who soon becomes her confidant. Besides teaching, Dani finds herself holding Merilee’s hair as Merilee vomits. In time, Merilee confesses to her that she wants the pregnancy to end. But because she lives in Texas, she cannot have an abortion. Dani decides Merilee should have the right to choose what becomes of her child and her own body, so she makes secret arrangements for Merilee to travel to North Carolina to have an abortion.
Enter Theo, a former professional baseball player and co-owner of a bar, who agrees to drive Merilee to North Carolina to have an abortion. Theo feels called upon to help Merilee because he recently lost his wife, Liv. Liv, a friend of Dani’s, was also Merilee’s biology teacher, and Theo remembers how highly Liv thought of Merilee. More personally, Liv died after having two miscarriages and then trying to carry a third child to term, only to have severe complications. When her life became endangered, the doctor was too afraid to perform an abortion to save the mother and it was too late for Theo to drive her to Kansas where abortion is legal. Theo does not want to see Merilee risk her life so he comes to her rescue.
What follows is an odyssey across state lines to find a solution for Merilee, but this will be no easy journey. Not only is Merilee concerned about vomiting in Theo’s truck, but she has mixed feelings about Micah, who basically has dumped her now and may be in a relationship with a girl she thought was her friend. Worse, at a restaurant in Tuscaloosa, Merilee and Theo bump into a former acquaintance of Theo’s who is now a detective and quickly realizes Theo must be helping Merilee to have an abortion. The law allows bounty hunters to report abortion attempts. If he reports Theo to the police, Theo could be faced with legal problems, as could Merilee, and Dani if it’s found out she helped them.
A large cast of supporting characters are also involved, including Liv’s parents, who live in North Carolina and plan to help Theo and Merilee. Merilee’s foster parents do not know where Merilee has gone. Micah is left at home with his own family issues to sort out. And after things in North Carolina do not go as planned, Merilee and Theo return to Texas with a lot of explaining to do, and a lot of angry backlash and misunderstandings to deal with from a host of people.
TORN will continually surprise you. As Theo thinks at one point while they are driving, “There was so much to digest about Merilee Stillwater, whose life changed drastically day by day. Theo couldn’t fathom what it would have been like trying to keep up with her over the past three years.” Merilee has hopes and dreams for her future and she also has a lot of baggage from her past due to her parents’ untimely deaths and her time spent in the foster care system. So many people have come into her life, some to love and help her, some who try to love her but are misguided, and some who simply want to throw her under the bus. Issues of right and wrong, sex and love, prejudice and forgiveness all rise to the surface and seek resolution before the novel is over.
I can assure you that by the time you finish reading TORN, you will have opened your eyes to both sides of the abortion argument, you will grow to accept there is no black and white, and you will wish everyone who finds themselves with an unwanted pregnancy could have the kind of support Merilee finds.
Get ready for laughs, tears, and that cathartic feeling that only the best novelists can provide. After you read TORN, you will not feel torn about wanting to read everything else Mary Flinn has written.
February 20, 2025
A from-the-headlines heart wrenching story detailing the abysmal state of maternal care and pregnancy options in post-Roe legislation times. There are some heroes here, and none of them are legislators. So very sad. But a good and important read.
March 13, 2025
A very thought provoking book. Regardless of your feelings on the matter, it takes an unflinching glance on abortion from many angles. Not my normal read, it moved along at good pacing and was enjoyable to read. Thank you to author and Goodreads Giveaways for the chance to read and review
May 21, 2025
Torn by Mary Flinn is a moving, timely, emotional story that centers on one of modern-day America’s popular and often divisive topics—reproductive rights. At the center of it is Merilee Stillwater, a young Native American woman whose life is suddenly turned upside down when she discovers she’s pregnant. Her world is already rife with tough circumstances — she’s a foster child, she’s battling a serious pregnancy illness called hyperemesis gravidarum, and on top of it all, she’s stuck in Texas, a state with some of the harshest abortion laws in the country.
Right from the very first pages, readers will feel her fear, heartbreak, and turmoil, as well as a deeply ingrained, fierce determination to take back control of her life. Then there’s Theo Martinez, a former pro baseball player still grieving the loss of his wife, Liv, whose pregnancy ended tragically. He meets Merilee at the ideal moment and, without hesitation, starts helping her to leave Texas for North Carolina, where she can freely get an abortion. Their journey is filled with tangible tension as well as a beckoning hope amidst a growing bond that feels both fragile and strong at the same time. The journey also turns painful at times, and readers will keep hoping as they turn the pages for a happy ending.
Flinn writes in a way that is authentic, honest, and meaningful without being preachy or telling readers what to think. She invites them to walk alongside the characters, experience their pain, and witness their struggles with the often-unexpected difficulties they experience. She remarkably explores important topics like racism, class, healthcare, and personal freedom, all through the lens of Merilee’s story, while handling her Native American heritage with such respect and care, showing her identity without falling into stereotypes. The secondary characters — from Merilee’s well-intentioned but complicated foster parents to her once-supportive boyfriend Micah and her caring tutor Dani — bring extra heart and depth to the story. You’ll feel like you know them all by the end, and their choices reflect the larger, messy world we live in.
The many lessons this book imparts, such as the fact that life may become chaotic and require us to make difficult decisions, will be appreciated by readers. Readers will also adore Flinn’s writing style, which is incredibly smooth, emotional, and gripping. The way the book is structured, it seamlessly transitions between the perspectives of the two main protagonists, allowing the reader to enter their hearts and minds and experience their emotions up close. Character development is particularly strong; you witness the duo gradually come to terms with their situations and transform into individuals who find their voices and bravely fight for their futures.
Mary Flinn’s novel Torn is the type that stays with you long after you have turned the last page. It is about real people, genuine challenges, and the strength of standing up for yourself when life seems completely overwhelming. This story will make you think about what it means to be brave, to care about others, and to fight for what’s right, even when the world feels unfair. What really sets it apart is how much heart it has; you connect with the characters on a deep level, and by the end, you will feel as if you have gone on this trip with them. If you’re looking for a book that’s emotional, gripping, and seriously thought-provoking, Torn is one you won’t want to miss.
Right from the very first pages, readers will feel her fear, heartbreak, and turmoil, as well as a deeply ingrained, fierce determination to take back control of her life. Then there’s Theo Martinez, a former pro baseball player still grieving the loss of his wife, Liv, whose pregnancy ended tragically. He meets Merilee at the ideal moment and, without hesitation, starts helping her to leave Texas for North Carolina, where she can freely get an abortion. Their journey is filled with tangible tension as well as a beckoning hope amidst a growing bond that feels both fragile and strong at the same time. The journey also turns painful at times, and readers will keep hoping as they turn the pages for a happy ending.
Flinn writes in a way that is authentic, honest, and meaningful without being preachy or telling readers what to think. She invites them to walk alongside the characters, experience their pain, and witness their struggles with the often-unexpected difficulties they experience. She remarkably explores important topics like racism, class, healthcare, and personal freedom, all through the lens of Merilee’s story, while handling her Native American heritage with such respect and care, showing her identity without falling into stereotypes. The secondary characters — from Merilee’s well-intentioned but complicated foster parents to her once-supportive boyfriend Micah and her caring tutor Dani — bring extra heart and depth to the story. You’ll feel like you know them all by the end, and their choices reflect the larger, messy world we live in.
The many lessons this book imparts, such as the fact that life may become chaotic and require us to make difficult decisions, will be appreciated by readers. Readers will also adore Flinn’s writing style, which is incredibly smooth, emotional, and gripping. The way the book is structured, it seamlessly transitions between the perspectives of the two main protagonists, allowing the reader to enter their hearts and minds and experience their emotions up close. Character development is particularly strong; you witness the duo gradually come to terms with their situations and transform into individuals who find their voices and bravely fight for their futures.
Mary Flinn’s novel Torn is the type that stays with you long after you have turned the last page. It is about real people, genuine challenges, and the strength of standing up for yourself when life seems completely overwhelming. This story will make you think about what it means to be brave, to care about others, and to fight for what’s right, even when the world feels unfair. What really sets it apart is how much heart it has; you connect with the characters on a deep level, and by the end, you will feel as if you have gone on this trip with them. If you’re looking for a book that’s emotional, gripping, and seriously thought-provoking, Torn is one you won’t want to miss.
April 1, 2025
Imagine being a young woman from a financially strained background, poised to enter adulthood without the ability to make choices about her own life. Orphaned at 15 and approaching 18, Merilee faces the overwhelming challenges of pregnancy and solitude, her compromised health necessitating a shift from traditional education to homeschooling while coping with acute illness during tutoring sessions. Merilee's situation appears desperate until she is presented with an opportunity to change her circumstances. This moving story examines the emotional struggle of a young woman attempting to decide what is best for her health, her future while remaining true to herself and her beliefs. A must read!!!!
October 8, 2024
Mary Flinn has done it again! The rich, interesting characters pull you into their stories and you can't put the book down.
The theme of the book is so timely, female reproductive rights! This could easily be a Netflix series. A story for the times and to enrich this ongoing discussion.
Thank you Mary, your words and characters establish you as a welcomed author for our times!!!
The theme of the book is so timely, female reproductive rights! This could easily be a Netflix series. A story for the times and to enrich this ongoing discussion.
Thank you Mary, your words and characters establish you as a welcomed author for our times!!!
May 23, 2025
An important topic and an important story. I give it 2 stars only because the pacing from the first half to the back half felt off. At times the conversations between characters didn't feel real enough for me. Parts of the story felt unnecessary. All things that are just person aspects. I appreciate an author writing a story on such an important topic so thank you for that.
March 12, 2025
A compelling story about a teenage pregnant girl who was very sick. Her parents were deceased, and she was in the foster care system. She felt completely isolated until a couple of good Samaritans helped her.
January 6, 2025
I really liked this book. The story is very timely and the characters were so believable. I think this is her best one yet!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews