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Charmed #22
Magisch Hollywood
Een wanhopige gok,
Een eeuwenoude vloek.
Goed of kwaad,
Voor wie valt het doek?
Phoebe Halliwell mag er dan wel klaar voor zijn om als single een nieuw leven te beginnen, maar haar ex-man Cole, die opnieuw een demon geworden is, wil haar niet laten gaan. Cole blijft over Phoebe waken en in een gevecht komt hij tussenbeide, maar veroorzaakt per ongeluk een scheur in het tijdsgewricht. Cole verdwijnt naar het Hollywood ten tijde van de Tweede Wereldoorlog – en neemt de zusjes met zich mee!
Hoewel de Magische Machten wel gewend zijn aan extreme omstandigheden, voorzien ze nu niet dat een demonische bende kleine ondernemers afperst. Om in de onderwereld te infiltreren doet Paige zich voor als een jong, opkomend filmsterretje en zorgt ze voor magische momenten voor de camera. In de tussentijd komt Piper in de verleiding om Leo te gaan zoeken – in deze tijd is hij nog een mens – en blijft Phoebe maar worstelen met Cole. Maar een demonische gangster oefent zijn zwarte magie op Paige uit en als de zusjes niet bij de les blijven, zouden ze wel eens hun ongeluk tegemoet kunnen gaan!
Een eeuwenoude vloek.
Goed of kwaad,
Voor wie valt het doek?
Phoebe Halliwell mag er dan wel klaar voor zijn om als single een nieuw leven te beginnen, maar haar ex-man Cole, die opnieuw een demon geworden is, wil haar niet laten gaan. Cole blijft over Phoebe waken en in een gevecht komt hij tussenbeide, maar veroorzaakt per ongeluk een scheur in het tijdsgewricht. Cole verdwijnt naar het Hollywood ten tijde van de Tweede Wereldoorlog – en neemt de zusjes met zich mee!
Hoewel de Magische Machten wel gewend zijn aan extreme omstandigheden, voorzien ze nu niet dat een demonische bende kleine ondernemers afperst. Om in de onderwereld te infiltreren doet Paige zich voor als een jong, opkomend filmsterretje en zorgt ze voor magische momenten voor de camera. In de tussentijd komt Piper in de verleiding om Leo te gaan zoeken – in deze tijd is hij nog een mens – en blijft Phoebe maar worstelen met Cole. Maar een demonische gangster oefent zijn zwarte magie op Paige uit en als de zusjes niet bij de les blijven, zouden ze wel eens hun ongeluk tegemoet kunnen gaan!
238 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
4 people are currently reading
1023 people want to read
About the author
Scott Ciencin
163 books78 followersScott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.
(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)
(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
October 19, 2022
Phoebe and Cole are split up, but Cole’s not taking it well. He intervenes during a fight between the Charmed Ones and some demons. But something goes very wrong and time starts to rupture, blasting Cole and the Charmed Ones back into the past. Now they’re in Hollywood during World War II and they need to find a way to get back home. But Phoebe’s preoccupied with Cole. And Piper’s trying to find Leo, the old Leo, before he ever became a Whitelighter. So it’s up to Paige to pick up the slack.
Hollywood during World War II is a really fascinating setting. The characterizations are done well. The plot is solid, action-packed and there are some really cool moments to be found here. It just tries to do a lot in a short amount of time. Because of that, the villains here end up drawing the short end of the stick. They’re introduced really well and seem very mysterious, conniving and cunning. But because they don’t really get much time to develop and execute their plans, you basically get the feeling there was potential for a lot more.
Overall, a pretty cool adventure for the Charmed Ones that could have easily been expanded and turned into an actual TV episode. It also reminds me a bit of the time travel episodes that focused on Phoebe and Cole, which are some of my personal favorite episodes of the entire series.
Hollywood during World War II is a really fascinating setting. The characterizations are done well. The plot is solid, action-packed and there are some really cool moments to be found here. It just tries to do a lot in a short amount of time. Because of that, the villains here end up drawing the short end of the stick. They’re introduced really well and seem very mysterious, conniving and cunning. But because they don’t really get much time to develop and execute their plans, you basically get the feeling there was potential for a lot more.
Overall, a pretty cool adventure for the Charmed Ones that could have easily been expanded and turned into an actual TV episode. It also reminds me a bit of the time travel episodes that focused on Phoebe and Cole, which are some of my personal favorite episodes of the entire series.
May 23, 2017
I am super annoyed with how they describe the sisters and Leo and Cole as super handsome and beautiful people. Yes I agree that Holy Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan, Brian Krause and Julian McMahon are all very pretty but please don't do that in a book. It gives me the feeling that they are perfect and I bet that they sometimes wish to change something about themselves.
Besides I didn't find the story line interesting..
Besides I didn't find the story line interesting..
April 12, 2019
This one was okay, but it probably would've been a better episode on TV than in book. I felt the sisters and Leo didn't behave as they do on the show, but that's usually the downfall of "reading" a TV show inspired novel - you're getting someone's interpretation of the characters and that doesn't always mesh with how the actor's portray them or how you perceive them. I did find the demons interesting and would've liked to have seen them featured on the show. All in all, this was a fun little read and I really enjoyed getting a glimpse at Leo's life in the 1940's.
June 15, 2017
5 stars
Good book. Enjoyed having another book with the Charmed Ones. Time-traveling books are always interesting. Hope they will forgive Cole or at least have a civil relationship with him.
Can't wait to read more Charmed novels!!!!!
Good book. Enjoyed having another book with the Charmed Ones. Time-traveling books are always interesting. Hope they will forgive Cole or at least have a civil relationship with him.
Can't wait to read more Charmed novels!!!!!
July 20, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for GR.
A Season 5 set novel!!
Finally made it to where Paige is a redhead and Cole is now a demon again on the outs with Phoebe.
Even if these novels aren't canon that means that Piper is pregnant!!
Phoebe is working on her Ask Phoebe column when Cole shows up with mochas and uses his newfound powers to stop it from staining Phoebe's new top. Nearby, a fellow colleague at the Bay Mirror spills his own beverage all over the floor while on the phone using a headset.
Phoebe blames it as a side effect from Cole, former demon and Source of All Evil, having gathered so many powers from the Demonic Wasteland. Cole is trying so hard to win Phoebe back because the magic may come from evil, but he isn't. Once Cole leaves inside Phoebe's office by shimmering out, a suspicious way to leave when he walked in through the door, she tries to write her new column but fails.
Leaving, Phoebe slips on the spill and gets a premonition of the reporter coming across a demon ceremony at the docks and being blasted by a fireball just by grabbing his headset. Two interns witness this, but Phoebe brushes the vision off as a sugar low and goes to inform her sisters.
The two interns, however, are actually different demons setting up Phoebe so she and her sisters can vanquish an enemy clan. They are bound to not speak their true names, so they go by Mr. Tremble and Mr. Sigh, and it seems they want to get back at Cole for his distant past as Belthazor, his original demon half.
Piper and Leo are at P3 hosting a 1940s night, but it isn't as hopping as Piper hoped. It seems just right for Leo since he was human back in the 1940s before being killed as a medic in WWII.
They go to find Paige who is taking a genealogy class at Berkley but moved to the library when a handsome classmate named Ben said he could teach her better than the professor. Using the computer, Ben finds an ancestor from Paige's adopted father's family who was an actress back in the late 1930s/early 1940s named Penny Day Matthews.
The woman bears a striking redheaded resemblance to Paige, seeing as she was born a brunette like her sisters. Ben was taking the class because he's adopted too and sparks fly but fizzle (for the moment) when Piper, Leo and Phoebe arrive.
At the dock, The Charmed Ones are ready to fight but find that Cole has been following Phoebe to protect her. Leo is caught by one of the intern demons to keep from protecting them and Cole's powers start creating some sort of vortex as The Charmed Ones chant a Power of Three spell, unable to stop. When Leo finds a way to escape, he returns just in time to see all of them sucked inside the portal.
Leo is left in present time, distraught, while the others are sent back to 1942 Hollywood!
It is WWII era, and the girls still have their powers but unfortunately, Cole doesn't have his. Even though he was a demon in 1942, a witch cursed him by stripping his powers which he eventually got back. Using his knowledge, Cole somehow finds money to get a hotel room for the girls and they resort to selling some of their jewelry to buy new clothes to fit in with the time period since they have no idea how they can get home...they'll need jobs.
Piper finds a job waitressing while Cole stays at the hotel with Paige, who suffered a head injury, and Phoebe is almost ready to take a waitress job until she notices the necklace of a young woman sitting near her. It has a Wiccan symbol, and Phoebe finds herself talking to out-of-town girl Chloe from the Midwest going for a job at the small movie studio, Orion Pictures.
They both get jobs in the wardrobe department and Phoebe is stunned to meet Penny Day Matthews and watch her film a movie. It seems that demons are going around shaking down local businesses as if they were the Mafia and the movie studio is one of them which doesn't sit well with Penny, so she tells Chloe she is planning on leaving.
That is when Cole suggests that Paige can pose as Penny and try to infiltrate the underground ring once she starts feeling better. With Chloe and Phoebe's help, Paige has no trouble slipping into the role of a Hollywood starlet and even begins flirting with the head of the demon's henchmen, going by the name of Ned from Chicago.
Paige, of course, doesn't know this at first and "Ned" and "Penny" are both playing a dangerous game.
Despite some Power of Three/Charmed One moments, Phoebe mostly finds herself dealing with Cole being human again yet tied into the demon underground and then learning he has business with another witch named Theda, yet she may be the same witch who cursed him. Lots of UST that brings to mind those films with Hepburn and Tracy.
Piper's biggest dilemma is that this is the period in time when Leo was still alive and human. His tales of 1940s Hollywood and the stars and the places they frequented are always with Piper and she knows that soon, Leo will be shipped off.
The U.S. has just been thrust into the war after Pearl Harbor so Piper wonders if she can catch a glimpse of him at The Brown Derby and see if their magic is still there. It plays off like a girl having a crush on a boy from afar for so long that you know everything about them but to try and talk to them is like having a mouthful of sawdust and your heart beating like a jackhammer in your chest.
Or...so I've been told. Not having been through anything like that at all you know.
Luck Be a Lady is a book that would have made a good Charmed episode. Things work out with the foursome finding a magical way back home and everything works out fine for Piper being reunited with Leo and Paige giving Ben a call. The bitter side of the bittersweet ending is that Cole has his powers back and Phoebe has to tell him that it can't work out between them.
A Season 5 set novel!!
Finally made it to where Paige is a redhead and Cole is now a demon again on the outs with Phoebe.
Even if these novels aren't canon that means that Piper is pregnant!!
Phoebe is working on her Ask Phoebe column when Cole shows up with mochas and uses his newfound powers to stop it from staining Phoebe's new top. Nearby, a fellow colleague at the Bay Mirror spills his own beverage all over the floor while on the phone using a headset.
Phoebe blames it as a side effect from Cole, former demon and Source of All Evil, having gathered so many powers from the Demonic Wasteland. Cole is trying so hard to win Phoebe back because the magic may come from evil, but he isn't. Once Cole leaves inside Phoebe's office by shimmering out, a suspicious way to leave when he walked in through the door, she tries to write her new column but fails.
Leaving, Phoebe slips on the spill and gets a premonition of the reporter coming across a demon ceremony at the docks and being blasted by a fireball just by grabbing his headset. Two interns witness this, but Phoebe brushes the vision off as a sugar low and goes to inform her sisters.
The two interns, however, are actually different demons setting up Phoebe so she and her sisters can vanquish an enemy clan. They are bound to not speak their true names, so they go by Mr. Tremble and Mr. Sigh, and it seems they want to get back at Cole for his distant past as Belthazor, his original demon half.
Piper and Leo are at P3 hosting a 1940s night, but it isn't as hopping as Piper hoped. It seems just right for Leo since he was human back in the 1940s before being killed as a medic in WWII.
They go to find Paige who is taking a genealogy class at Berkley but moved to the library when a handsome classmate named Ben said he could teach her better than the professor. Using the computer, Ben finds an ancestor from Paige's adopted father's family who was an actress back in the late 1930s/early 1940s named Penny Day Matthews.
The woman bears a striking redheaded resemblance to Paige, seeing as she was born a brunette like her sisters. Ben was taking the class because he's adopted too and sparks fly but fizzle (for the moment) when Piper, Leo and Phoebe arrive.
At the dock, The Charmed Ones are ready to fight but find that Cole has been following Phoebe to protect her. Leo is caught by one of the intern demons to keep from protecting them and Cole's powers start creating some sort of vortex as The Charmed Ones chant a Power of Three spell, unable to stop. When Leo finds a way to escape, he returns just in time to see all of them sucked inside the portal.
Leo is left in present time, distraught, while the others are sent back to 1942 Hollywood!
It is WWII era, and the girls still have their powers but unfortunately, Cole doesn't have his. Even though he was a demon in 1942, a witch cursed him by stripping his powers which he eventually got back. Using his knowledge, Cole somehow finds money to get a hotel room for the girls and they resort to selling some of their jewelry to buy new clothes to fit in with the time period since they have no idea how they can get home...they'll need jobs.
Piper finds a job waitressing while Cole stays at the hotel with Paige, who suffered a head injury, and Phoebe is almost ready to take a waitress job until she notices the necklace of a young woman sitting near her. It has a Wiccan symbol, and Phoebe finds herself talking to out-of-town girl Chloe from the Midwest going for a job at the small movie studio, Orion Pictures.
They both get jobs in the wardrobe department and Phoebe is stunned to meet Penny Day Matthews and watch her film a movie. It seems that demons are going around shaking down local businesses as if they were the Mafia and the movie studio is one of them which doesn't sit well with Penny, so she tells Chloe she is planning on leaving.
That is when Cole suggests that Paige can pose as Penny and try to infiltrate the underground ring once she starts feeling better. With Chloe and Phoebe's help, Paige has no trouble slipping into the role of a Hollywood starlet and even begins flirting with the head of the demon's henchmen, going by the name of Ned from Chicago.
Paige, of course, doesn't know this at first and "Ned" and "Penny" are both playing a dangerous game.
Despite some Power of Three/Charmed One moments, Phoebe mostly finds herself dealing with Cole being human again yet tied into the demon underground and then learning he has business with another witch named Theda, yet she may be the same witch who cursed him. Lots of UST that brings to mind those films with Hepburn and Tracy.
Piper's biggest dilemma is that this is the period in time when Leo was still alive and human. His tales of 1940s Hollywood and the stars and the places they frequented are always with Piper and she knows that soon, Leo will be shipped off.
The U.S. has just been thrust into the war after Pearl Harbor so Piper wonders if she can catch a glimpse of him at The Brown Derby and see if their magic is still there. It plays off like a girl having a crush on a boy from afar for so long that you know everything about them but to try and talk to them is like having a mouthful of sawdust and your heart beating like a jackhammer in your chest.
Or...so I've been told. Not having been through anything like that at all you know.
Luck Be a Lady is a book that would have made a good Charmed episode. Things work out with the foursome finding a magical way back home and everything works out fine for Piper being reunited with Leo and Paige giving Ben a call. The bitter side of the bittersweet ending is that Cole has his powers back and Phoebe has to tell him that it can't work out between them.
October 6, 2018
I wasn't terribly thrilled with this story. I usually love reading Charmed novels, because they're like episodes in book form. But this one just didn't do it for me. Leo and Piper were written as much more whiny and mushy then I ever percieved them to be. And I can't exactly picture Phoebe taking walks on the beach by herself. Plus there were some strange cadences to the writing, and the use of exclamation points for emphasis where they were completely unneccesary.
Some of the elements of the story itself reminded me a bit of the episode of Charmed called "Muse to My Ears" which features a 40's themed party.
Some of the elements of the story itself reminded me a bit of the episode of Charmed called "Muse to My Ears" which features a 40's themed party.
November 9, 2019
This one is harder to review. I had some issues with the writing; sometimes it felt like the author was telling us everything, as if they were reading the story to us, rather than the story playing out in front of me, which was not something I liked.
I liked the story in general. But I feel like there was more there to explore than the size of the book would have allowed.
I liked the story in general. But I feel like there was more there to explore than the size of the book would have allowed.
September 5, 2021
An und für sich nicht die schlechteste Geschichte, das Ende war mir aber wie so oft bei den Charmed Büchern zu abgehakt. Außerdem passt der Titel nicht, weil "Das Zepter der schwarzen Magierin" kam im gesamten Buch nicht vor 😂😂
February 20, 2022
This one definitely wasn’t my favourite, it never really gripped me the whole way through. Every character felt very anti-themselves and even the bad guys just didn’t seem all that bad. I think i carried on reading out of stubbornness rather than interest
April 30, 2023
So not the best charmed book, but not the worst either. The story was fun with the old Hollywood stuff, even with the constant changing rules of time travel in these books/show, but the villains sucked as did the wrap up.
June 6, 2017
I think this one was the rare case when TV-show was better than the book, but I still enjoyed it, finished within one night. Will keep for collection.
June 4, 2018
Good quick vacation read. Nothing fancy or deep complex story. Light cheesy fun.
I picked this up because I watched the show years ago.
I picked this up because I watched the show years ago.
August 4, 2018
Just an okay read!
August 20, 2018
This was a fun and easy read. Watched the series years ago and really liked it.
May 9, 2022
This book was silly and sometimes didn't make sense, but I sure had fun reading it.
February 9, 2025
Being as these books are essentially fan fiction, the character portrayal in this book was horrible. The characters decision and dialogue was off base from the show and made the short book a hard read.
August 13, 2016
16/1 - This was just okay. The second Ciencin book in a row and I don't know that they are getting better as they go. Once again I didn't feel like Ciencin was really getting the characterisation of any of the Halliwell sisters right, especially Phoebe who seemed to say and think things I didn't see the tv version of her character saying. She seemed a lot more obsessed with Cole and her insistence that Cole couldn't be allowed to help them in any way, to the extent of choosing to put herself and her sisters in danger before taking help from Cole, than I expected. The tv Phoebe always seemed more intelligent than that, to me. I don't know if it's just the way the actors delivered their lines or that the writers in charge of the show were better at coming up with quips than Ciencin is, but none of his one-liners were funny - maybe they just don't translate to reading as well as they do to hearing/watching. This is one of the many books I bought from the library (so for a period of time I 'owned' it) for $0.50 and I'll be returning them to the sale shelves (so I will no longer own it, and therefore it's gone on the 'books I used to own' shelf) as I wouldn't read this book a third time and I would think hard before reading another Ciencin fan fiction (not counting the ones I may already own).
August 8, 2016
This was a fun, easy read, starring the amended set of 3 witches (after Prue's death). Piper, Phoebe and Paige, along with Phoebe's ex-husband Cole, are transported back to 1942 during a battle with demons. The quartet has to deal with the issues, including being out of place, out of money, and out of luck, in order to not only return home, but determine why they were sent to the past, and what they are supposed to accomplish there.
Again, fun and easy, and, like the show, something that can be picked up when you need a lift.
Read it again, and although parts are ridiculous it is still a good read.
Again, fun and easy, and, like the show, something that can be picked up when you need a lift.
Read it again, and although parts are ridiculous it is still a good read.
January 2, 2015
Like all the other Charmed novels, a great book, and just as good as the actual show.
March 3, 2010
This is an awsome book I just look the setting of the book bit I would I'm a history nerd
Read
February 21, 2013good book phoebe is awesome :)
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews