Changeling Places (Charmed) [Mass Market Paperback]

Micol Ostow (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charmed | Publication Date: March 22, 2005

Changeling

Places

"Rock-a-bye baby, in the elf lair --

Shapeshifters took you,

pretending to care.

If someone can save you,

the Charmed Ones can --

Rock-a-bye baby, don't leave again."

Piper is trying to be her usual superwitch self and do it all -- run P3, take care of her newborn son, Wyatt, and, of course, save Innocents. Her first week back at work is hard -- leaving Wyatt at his day care center makes Piper feel like she's abandoning her son. At least Paige has taken a temp job there, and Wyatt seems perfectly content and safe.

But is he? Piper notices that Wyatt's acting strange, not eating or sleeping according to his normal schedule. Phoebe thinks the baby is just going through a stage, but Piper is not convinced. Several of the center's other charges have been exhibiting the same behavior, and some parents are pulling their children from the center's care. After one toddler asks Paige, "Did they take them because they're the wrong babies?" the sisters discover that someone's swapping babies all over San Francisco. The Charmed Ones spring into action, because not only is Wyatt the most magical being on the planet, but he's also a Halliwell...and "nobody" messes with the Halliwells!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Micol Ostow is half Puerto Rican, half Jewish, half student, half writer, half chocolate, half peanut butter. When she is under deadline, she is often half asleep. She believes that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts except in the case of Chubby Hubby ice cream. She lives in New York City where she reads, runs, and drinks way too much coffee. Learn more at www.micolostow.com.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (March 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689878524
• ISBN-13: 978-0689878527
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #646,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the Innocents, April 7, 2005

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Changeling Places (Charmed) (Mass Market Paperback)

I have mixed feelings about this book. I had low expectations based on the confused-pun title but was surprised to discover that the author knew the difference between a changeling and a shape-shifter. But the writing started off bad and seemed to pay little attention to the Charmed universe.

The book opens with a bounty hunter appearing in an elfin village. She is there to take the babies. She says she does not ask questions about her assignments and does not know why she has been asked to take them. Within a single page she reveals the reason (huh?). From there we move to more familiar territory as Piper is aching to get back to work now that her baby has been born. With Paige's help, daycare is attempted but things don't work out. Eventually the sisters notice patterns and coincidences and set out to solve the problem

This is one of the shortest books I have read in a long time (150 pages). With very little room for plot complications I was quite surprised to find the Charmed ones out and out refusing to help misled innocents. They not only refuse but do so angrily. They only go back to help after Leo gets back with orders from the Elders. This is like an alternate-universe Charmed where the characters look the same but have different personalities. There are some good Charmed books out there but this is not one of them.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Changeling Falls Short, June 15, 2005

By 

Karl G "Jerry" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Changeling Places (Charmed) (Mass Market Paperback)

Micol Ostow has serious writer's block here. Her writing is not creative, not funny, the plot lacks action, magic and wit. Everything goes very easy in this book and I found it was VERY, VERY, VERY long-winded. The action comes only at, guess what Chapter 6! Yada-yada-yada for 5 chapters and a prologue, until finally something remotely dangerous pops up. The ending also falls short. Micol's spells do not rhyme throughout the book and my guess is that she got so fed up she resorted to 'The Power of Three will set us free!' On TV, that spell would prove a good change. In the book, it was tacky and boring. She tries to spice things up with a 'Wyatt power boost' but that fell short too. The demon hardly showed any powers and sounded more like a grouchy, grumpy dad who found the thief that stole his china. Sigh... What happened to great Charmed?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Highly UNrecommended... a huge disppointment, October 12, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Changeling Places (Charmed) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is officially one of the worst books in the entire Charmed book series. The story lacks plot, suspense, thrilling action, sudden twists and turns you would find in most Charmed books. And I definitely believe that Micol Ostow must not have put her heart and soul into writing this somewhat-cross-between-a-short-story-and-novel. She is a good author (for readers below 12, that is) but her story fails to deliever, in the regular high standards and expectations for a typical good Charmed novel: (think authors like Diana G.Gallagher, Paul Ruditis and Laura J.Burns, for examples of good Charmed authors).

Back to the book. The starting was a great big bore, with an unnecessary waste of writing space about Piper having a career and having to be a mom of an infant boy.... TOO much exaggeration. Secondly, Wyatt not being his usual self and acting like he was possessed or something. Soon, nearly half the babies in San Francisco are behaving UNLIKE themselves. Turns out to be an unfair situation of the elves gathering up an army for an underworldly army by a demon named Lexor, due to the orders of a bounty hunter.


Doesn't quite make sense? Yup. I think Micol must have been desparate to write something that she goes to the extents of a situation beyond VERY unfair and downright ridiculous. The part where she wrote that the Charmed ones agreed to help them kick the demon's butt within a day, but turns out his bounty hunter needed the babies urgently so the elves put the blame on the Charmed ones, claiming that they were the ones who are a threat to this predicament, and puts Piper's life in danger.

Hmmm... Like I said, its kind of beyond human thinking to put this kind of wastage.

Unless you are desperate for a Charmed read, do yourself a favor and give this book a miss.