Changeling Places
Reviewed by Tim McCree
April 2005

BOOK: Changeling Places
AUTHOR:  Micol Ostow
NOTE: This review may contain plot spoilers.

There is nothing harder than being a working mother, and for Piper Halliwell, she is finding out just how hard it is. Not only does she have to juggle looking after her son, Wyatt, and run her club, P3, she also has her Charmed duties as well. This could be taxing for anyone and Piper is almost flying apart at the seems. Luckily, Paige comes to the rescue. Her latest temp job has her working at the Bayside Child Care Center, a daycare facility. Paige offers to take Wyatt there and let Piper look after the other aspects of her life. After some initial reluctance, Piper agrees. 

At first, things seem to go well, however, Wyatt soon begins to act strangely. He is crying all the time, and being much more fussy than usual. As Paige looks into it, she finds out that Wyatt is not the only one. Almost all the babies that were left at the Bayside Center have changed for the worst. Also, a little girl, who is also at the center, tells Paige that she saw a fairy “change” the babies, a fairy who was disguised as the volunteer nurse. To complicate matters further, that nurse has now vanished without a trace. Is this just the imagination of a child, or is there more going on here than the Charmed Ones know? 

Once again we get a good book that shows the Charmed Ones at there best as they look into this mystery. At first it just seems they are dealing with fussy babies, but as the story unfolds, we find out that this is not the case. Something more complex is happening and the Halliwells must find out what it is. 

This book also takes a look at Piper’s hectic life as a working mother. She is trying so hard to be there for Wyatt and run her club at the same time. I do not envy her in this task. I would imagine that being a working mother is hard enough as it is, even if you didn’t have to take off every so often to fight Demons and save Innocents. 

This is the second book to include baby Wyatt. Although he plays a major part in pointing the Charmed Ones in the right direction, he does not completely take over the story. Wyatt is just too young to carry a full story, in my opinion, of course. 


Also interesting was the subplot of Phoebe’s writers block. She is trying so hard to give out advice to new mothers, but comes up blank. Finally, she uses Piper’s situation to inspire her and it seems to work. Phoebe begins to write again as the story concludes. 

Some other points: 
-Chris has still not appeared. I wonder if the books plan to include him at all. 
-Daryl is nowhere to be seen either. Oh well, to be fair, he has been in most of the books. Much more than he was ever on the show, I might add. 
-once again Phoebe acts like the Phoebe I knew and loved from the early seasons. Thankfully, the book writers have avoided turning her into the selfish and bitter character she’s become on the show. 
-again the Charmed Ones actually manage to SAVE Innocents. The books once again outperform the show in this manner. 

All in all this was an enjoyable book. I think the fans, especially the Piper fans, will enjoy it. I give it an 8/10 rating. 

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