She tried to take all this in. That the woman in her had died in anguish and a vengeful man had been born in her place apparently brooked no notice of the universe. Nor had the universe even blinked in the absorption into itself of her tragedy. The excellent audio version of this book takes a great story and raises it to the level of a captivating story. I really enjoyed this. Defying a three-line whip is considered extremely serious and can lead to the whip being removed from the MP in question. What does it mean to have the whip removed? Like a nugget of gold pulled from the riffles is Karen Kondazian’s debut novel The Whip. It may be a book for the times. We can all use a little cowboy wisdom about now and Charley Parkhurst may just be the gal to bring it. A thrilling and soul-searching read, raises questions about revenge and forgiveness; above all, this novel captures brilliantly the zeitgeist of the stagecoach era.

Charley could sense Edmunds not only made love to Charlotte, but to Charley as well. The vision of Charley on the driver’s box, sweaty, dirty, whipping the six-team, powerful and brave as any man. She imagined it excited him to feel Charley beneath him or on top. As it excited her . . . the freedom to be a man and a woman in the same body – at the same time.

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This was a fantastic book. I could not put it down. I’ve recommended it to anyone who would listen. This is an easy read that keeps you engaged and impressed by a strong woman. The book club criticisms that this book is too “fictionalized” is absurd. This book is exactly as promoted – historical fiction. I’ve never found book clubs any fun. They take themselves too seriously. The participants usually act pretentiously as though they are of superior intelligence. They really are a bore to those of us who actually are of superior intelligence 🙂 The Whip may not appeal to people who are looking for stuffy, complicated prose. When I finished it, I couldn’t wait to try to find the grave of Charley in Watsonville – which is right down the road from me. I’ve done a lot of reading – and this ranks right up there with one of the best books ever. There are only a few other books I’ve found as inspirational and memorable. Stars. Best book for me in 2014, I had so many Omg moments. It had abandonment love hate murder everything you can think of. The chapter’s are very short . A very easy read .Great book. MPs who have lost the whip may late have it restored. Of the 21 Conservative MPs who had the whip removed in September 2019, 10 had the whip restored the following month. How common is it for MPs to disobey a three-line whip? The Whip is simply amazing. I expect author Karen Kondazian to turn this into a screenplay. Bravo to her and to strong women who survive against all odds in a man’s world!

Reading Charley’s story, you really get a sense of what life was like for a young, widowed woman in 19th century America. In hindsight, it’s all too easy to see her as a kind of social rebel, a precursor to the feminist movement of the mid 20th century, but the truth is she was guided by two things – the need to survive, and the desire to avenge her family – and advancing women’s rights wasn’t one of them. Charley’s life was a difficult one, both before and after losing her family, with one obstacle after another forced into her path. I daresay most men wouldn’t have been able to continue under such conditions! What a story of a courageous woman who survived a life of hardships. She was a woman, a mother, a wife, a man, a father, a lover, a whip, a drunk, an inspiration. Charley became a renowned stagecoach driver for Wells Fargo. She killed the famous outlaw Sugarfoot, had a secret love affair, and lived with a housekeeper who, unaware of her true sex, fell in love with her. While the author does seem to have taken ample creative liberty with the historical gaps, the things history DOES know about Charlie are all laid out in this book. Amazing woman.THE WHIP, set in the uncompromising Old West is inspired by the true story of an extraordinary woman, Charlotte "Charley" Parkhurst who lived most of her tumultuous life as a male stagecoach driver. I can't say enough about this book. It's not so much a western or a historical romance as it is a study in the human condition, running the full gamut of emotions. This means the vote is not whipped, and MPs may vote as they wish. Free votes are one of the few occasions when members of the government – usually bound to support the government position by the convention of collective cabinet responsibility – can express their independent opinion in the Commons. Traditionally, free votes have been held on matters of conscience, such as fox hunting and assisted dying, when it is accepted that MPs of the same party may have different views. In some circumstances, free votes can be used as a way of managing internal party politics – particularly when there are strongly held and competing views among the party leadership. In such cases, allowing a free vote can prevent an embarrassing government defeat or party rebellion. Whips – whether Tory, Labour or Lib Dem – have long inhabited a secret, often dark, world at Westminster, one that no one has ever seriously called into question. But now – just possibly – that could change. When wide-ranging inquiries were announced by home secretary Theresa May on Monday into allegations of child abuse in all corners of public life, including into unsubstantiated claims that a paedophile ring involving political figures operated around parliament in the 1980s, questions about the whips' role as guardians of deep and sometimes sinister information began, at last, to surface. The Whip is a striking tale. Author Karen Kondazian created an epic. My heart soared and tore to pieces.