Torn Wide Open — Official Release Dates
E-book available February 3 | Print edition available February 10
Torn Wide Open — Official Release Dates
E-book available February 3
Print edition available February 10
A beautiful, caring woman trapped by people pleasing.
A fierce, determined daughter who refused to submit.
We held each other through every storm - until Mom was taken from me.
I'm finally sharing our story.
What Happens When You Lose The One Person You Can Count On?
I could never relax around my father. We were always waiting for his next explosion.. My mother, my brother and I walked on eggshells around him.
The night he said he would kill me, my survival instincts took over. My desperate escape landed me in the hospital.
My Mom was my rock. She always made me feel safe, loved and supported. Until the awful day the light went out of her eyes.
If you have experienced a great loss, and grief so all-consuming you struggled to breathe, this book is for you.
You can heal, and that the future is yours to create, no matter what your past looks like. My book, Torn Wide Open, charts my path from grief to transformation, revealing how hardship can forge an inner strength you may not have known was there.
Even without family support, you can heal and become stronger than you ever imagined.
You can break the cycle of dysfunction and learn to take care of yourself no matter what.
You can learn to trust yourself and tap into your inner wisdom, even if you don’t know what to listen for.
When life feels impossible and you have lost hope, this book whispers, “I’ve been there, and you can get through it and find peace again.”
Who Is Lori Karsch?
I always wanted to be a teacher. I love helping others, especially kids, so it seemed like the best path for me.
My first teaching job was at an inner city school. It was an eye-opener. Some of my students would miss school because they had to watch their younger siblings while their parents worked. Many of them didn’t have a phone, or the money to buy pencils and paper for their homework. Nothing in college had prepared me for a young boy finding a crack pipe on the playground.
When I worked with students one-on-one, or in a small group, I had a gift for truly connecting with them. For just a few moments, they weren’t thinking about Dad’s drinking or Mom’s too-small paycheck, and got excited about learning. I decided to go to graduate school for my Master’s in counseling, and worked with students from elementary to high school age.
After my daughters were born, I wanted to stay home with them and needed a more flexible job. I started working as a recruiter for financial advisors who are looking for a new opportunity, and need help finding the right fit. I find out what’s not working at their current firms, and ask what they envision for themselves and their clients. This can take years to figure out, and requires a great deal of patience, sensitivity, and the ability to listen and read between the lines.
People rarely say what they’re truly longing for—not at first. You have to listen beneath the surface, notice the hesitations, the patterns, the quiet hopes they’re almost afraid to name. Most people have been conditioned to override their own intuition, so I help them spot the old family scripts, question the stories they’ve been handed, and discover the truth they’ve been carrying all along. It’s the same work, just on a deeper, more life-shifting level.
I want my daughters to listen to their intuition and trust themselves. I wrote this book for them.
As the chapters unfolded, I realized I wasn’t just leaving something for my daughters—I was opening a door for anyone who’s ready to rewrite their own story.
We have the freedom to question expectations and shape our lives as we choose to.
Let’s do it with integrity, so we have no regrets.
My mission is to help you reclaim the voice you’ve buried, trust the wisdom that has always been yours, and create a life that reflects who you truly are. If you grew up shaped by someone else’s expectations, I will show you how to trust yourself and find the courage to make bold, self-led choices that are yours alone.
If you second-guess yourself and doubt your instincts, my book is for you.
Most of us don’t live the way we truly want to. Because it’s hard. It takes a lot of courage, confidence, and trust in yourself.
It’s much easier to go with the flow, and do what everyone else does.
You can sleepwalk through life on autopilot, never daring to explore the possibilities. Because when we dare to share our dreams or speak our truth, people roll their eyes and try to force us back to “reality”... their reality, that is.
However well-intentioned your family and friends may be, they don’t know your story. Not the way you do.
Learning to listen to your own inner voice, the one that says “something’s not right” or “don’t get in the car” is the most valuable skill you can have.
Our culture does its best to train this out of us. It starts the first day you walk into a school. Sit here. Be quiet. Do this, don’t do that. Follow the rules, or else.
After years of this, we often lose sight of our inner knowing. There’s so much emphasis on doing everything “right” that we forget who we really are.
It’s time to remember.
There’s so much information and advice out there, it’s paralyzing.
Plenty of people will tell you exactly what you’re doing wrong and what you need to change.
I’m taking a different approach.
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Get early access to the first chapter of Torn Wide Open by Lori Karsch.
Book coming January 2026!
What Readers Are Saying About 'Torn Wide Open'
Christine Ferguson
“I couldn’t put it down.
It read nothing like I expected, in the best way.
The twists, the emotional layers, the moments that suddenly make sense near the end… it all came together so powerfully.
What struck me most was how often I had to remind myself, ‘This isn’t fiction, this is her real story.’
It’s written with such clarity and heart that you feel every part of it.
Anyone who has experienced loss or carried quiet emotional weight will see themselves somewhere in these pages.”
Cherie Deacon
“I read the manuscript over the weekend, and it stayed with me long after I closed it.
There were so many moments that felt deeply familiar, especially the parts about loss, caregiving, and the quiet burdens we hold while trying to stay strong for everyone else.
It spoke to me in ways I wasn’t expecting.
The writing is beautiful, heartfelt, and honest, and it helped me understand pieces of my own journey in a new way.
I’m grateful Lori trusted us to read it early. It truly gives you an inside view into healing, resilience, and the gentle truth-telling we often need but rarely say out loud.”
© 2025 Lori Karsch. All Rights Reserved.