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Charmed #36
Light of the World
From sea to sea to shining sea,
I bade that she come back to me --
Without her look, without her face,
I bade I too would leave this place.
The Charmed Ones couldn't be happier -- Phoebe and Piper's childhood friend Lyssa is getting married and has asked them to be bridesmaids! They're thrilled to support her at her wedding, and jump at the chance to get away to the seaside for a little while.
The ceremony will take place in Serenity Cove's beautiful old lighthouse, which is rumored to be haunted by the vengeful spirit of the lighthouse keeper who lost his true love at sea -- one hundred years ago, on the date of Lyssa's wedding. The Halliwell sisters ignore the rumors . . . until, that is, they notice the strange behavior of Lyssa's fiancé. He seems to have become obsessed with Lyssa's family heirloom, a strange and beautiful diamond called the Light of the World. Can the Charmed Ones disclose his true identity and intentions before their friend says "I do" to Mr. Wrong?
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2006
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805 people want to read
About the author
Troy Denning
186 books663 followersAlso known as Richard Awlinson.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Den...
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Den...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 6, 2009
In this 2006 book based on the TV series "Charmed," Piper and Phoebe Halliwell, with their half-sister, Paige Matthews, are three incredibly powerful witches who live together in the family house in San Francisco. Piper is married to Leo, a Whitelighter (a guardian angel for witches and other upstanding folk). She runs a nightclub called P3. They have a son, Wyatt, who is a babe in arms. Phoebe is actively involved in her "Ask Phoebe" column at the fictional Bay Mirror newspaper, quite firmly divorced from Cole, who (alas!) make no appearance in this book. Paige is not working, but is boning up on witchcraft full time.
The sisters receive a phone call (seems their invitations got lost in the mail) from Piper and Phoebe's childhood friend, Lyssa, asking them to be in her wedding at a charming West Coast community called Serenity Cove. The ceremony is to be held outside an historical old lighthouse where, 100 years ago to the day, a ship carrying the old keeper's fiancée foundered in a storm and was lost when the light failed on his watch. Legend holds that the keeper haunts the lighthouse still.
The sisters gladly accept the invitation, genuinely happy for Lyssa. They worry about being away from San Francisco for so long, but Leo assures them that there seems to be a lull in demonic activity and tells them they should go. They drive up the coast and find Serenity Cove full of “eccentrics,” including a man who paints underwater seascapes underwater, another who paints pigeons—not portraits of pigeons, but the poor birds themselves. If about now, the reader expects more Disney moments to come, the reader will not be disappointed.
The day before the big day, when the bride and the sisters go to get their dresses fitted, they find themselves under attack by water nozzles in the hairdresser's shop. The sisters see the vague outlines of water beings and figure that some water sprites are trying to stop their friend's wedding. Piper hears footsteps wherever she goes, but sees no one when she turns around.
Then there's Lyssa's intended, James. She's described him as an absent-minded professor type, but the man the sisters meet seems a bit obsessed with time and in particular the 100-year-old pocketwatch he always carries around with him. What the reader knows—but the sisters and the bride do not—is that he has already been possessed by the embittered spirit of the old lighthouse keeper who for some reason wants to unleash hell on earth as a way of avenging his fiancee's death. A diamond Lyssa's eccentric but fantastically wealthy parents will be presenting her as a wedding present, called the Light of the World, will amplify his power and ability to call up all the destructive creatures of the deep and destroy the earth. It can't be stolen—it must be freely given and will become his when the vows are exchanged.
Even with a century of brooding over his loss in an abandoned lighthouse, surrounded by a community of nut cases, the actions and emotions of the ghost just don't make sense. But then, none of the characters of the book came across to me as anything more than cartoons. This is especially true for the sisters, whose characters are already well established by the franchise. Here, they are little more than devices for the delivery of one-line catchphrases: “Wait for it,” “I got nuthin'.”
I also couldn't help noticing the similarity between the bride's first name, Lyssa, and that of the actress who plays Phoebe, Alyssa Milano. At one point, author Scott Ciencin has Piper say that Serenity Cove looks nice, “but so do a lot of tourist traps... or towns sitting over hellmouths.” Ciencin has also written “Buffy” novels.
As with the dialogue in High Spirits, another “Charmed” Ciencin novel, there is no conversation as such but a collection of catchphrases, the sort one might expect in a sit-com.
The conclusion, in which there is a happy ending and something of a redemption (*sigh*), is completely unbelievable, even for a franchise in which suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite. That and the references to Alyssa Milano and “Buffy,” the cartoon characterizations and the catchphrase dialogue, the whole book left me feeling used as a reader. I'm glad that I did not pay for this book—except of course, in the round about way as taxpayer since I got it from the library. There aren't even any fun moments in the book that could be weighed against all the negatives.
My recommendation is to stay the blazes away from it.
The sisters receive a phone call (seems their invitations got lost in the mail) from Piper and Phoebe's childhood friend, Lyssa, asking them to be in her wedding at a charming West Coast community called Serenity Cove. The ceremony is to be held outside an historical old lighthouse where, 100 years ago to the day, a ship carrying the old keeper's fiancée foundered in a storm and was lost when the light failed on his watch. Legend holds that the keeper haunts the lighthouse still.
The sisters gladly accept the invitation, genuinely happy for Lyssa. They worry about being away from San Francisco for so long, but Leo assures them that there seems to be a lull in demonic activity and tells them they should go. They drive up the coast and find Serenity Cove full of “eccentrics,” including a man who paints underwater seascapes underwater, another who paints pigeons—not portraits of pigeons, but the poor birds themselves. If about now, the reader expects more Disney moments to come, the reader will not be disappointed.
The day before the big day, when the bride and the sisters go to get their dresses fitted, they find themselves under attack by water nozzles in the hairdresser's shop. The sisters see the vague outlines of water beings and figure that some water sprites are trying to stop their friend's wedding. Piper hears footsteps wherever she goes, but sees no one when she turns around.
Then there's Lyssa's intended, James. She's described him as an absent-minded professor type, but the man the sisters meet seems a bit obsessed with time and in particular the 100-year-old pocketwatch he always carries around with him. What the reader knows—but the sisters and the bride do not—is that he has already been possessed by the embittered spirit of the old lighthouse keeper who for some reason wants to unleash hell on earth as a way of avenging his fiancee's death. A diamond Lyssa's eccentric but fantastically wealthy parents will be presenting her as a wedding present, called the Light of the World, will amplify his power and ability to call up all the destructive creatures of the deep and destroy the earth. It can't be stolen—it must be freely given and will become his when the vows are exchanged.
Even with a century of brooding over his loss in an abandoned lighthouse, surrounded by a community of nut cases, the actions and emotions of the ghost just don't make sense. But then, none of the characters of the book came across to me as anything more than cartoons. This is especially true for the sisters, whose characters are already well established by the franchise. Here, they are little more than devices for the delivery of one-line catchphrases: “Wait for it,” “I got nuthin'.”
I also couldn't help noticing the similarity between the bride's first name, Lyssa, and that of the actress who plays Phoebe, Alyssa Milano. At one point, author Scott Ciencin has Piper say that Serenity Cove looks nice, “but so do a lot of tourist traps... or towns sitting over hellmouths.” Ciencin has also written “Buffy” novels.
As with the dialogue in High Spirits, another “Charmed” Ciencin novel, there is no conversation as such but a collection of catchphrases, the sort one might expect in a sit-com.
The conclusion, in which there is a happy ending and something of a redemption (*sigh*), is completely unbelievable, even for a franchise in which suspension of disbelief is a prerequisite. That and the references to Alyssa Milano and “Buffy,” the cartoon characterizations and the catchphrase dialogue, the whole book left me feeling used as a reader. I'm glad that I did not pay for this book—except of course, in the round about way as taxpayer since I got it from the library. There aren't even any fun moments in the book that could be weighed against all the negatives.
My recommendation is to stay the blazes away from it.
August 28, 2025
Anything that mentions Wyatt is of course late season five or season six so that's where we seem to be in a lot of these later Charmed books.
Piper and Phoebe receive a call from a childhood friend named Lyssa Ainsley, she is getting married and wants the girls including Paige to be her bridesmaids with Phoebe as her maid of honor. They back out at first because of all the demon activity but Leo says he can watch Wyatt and that the Charmed Ones need a break to recharge.
The wedding is being held in a seaside town called Serenity Cove at will take place at a gorgeous lighthouse picked out by Lyssa's fiancé James Agatt due to its history.
A lighthouse keeper one hundred years earlier lost his bride to be at sea when her ship sank. It sounds tragically romantic, but the lighthouse is said to be haunted by the lightkeeper's ghost out of believing the accident was planned by a rival also in love with the same woman named Trudy.
The keeper ended up disappearing soon after the other man was killed in a drowning accident.
The sisters hear the story being told by a woman at the local library to a group of kids and don't pay it any mind, but Phoebe makes friends with the older woman, Jenna, who is an author in the town. A town that is full of eccentric old women who chase kids with brooms, painters paint underwater, and an old man likes to spray paint the pigeons in town different colors.
Lyssa's parents have rented a mansion to house the wedding guests and caterers for their daughter's big day and though rich, they are very down-to-earth people and likeable. Paige is included in everything so it proves how nice Lyssa, and her family can be to welcome her as if she had grown up with Piper and Phoebe alongside Prue.
Shown a photo of James, the sisters all give their approval of the groom, yet Phoebe can't help but notice how similar in looks James resembles her former half demon, evil ex-husband Cole.
Soon, strange things start happening that seem to be signs that the wedding is cursed. Lyssa's wedding gown and the bridesmaid dressed become ruined when a water main breaks in the dress shop soon after a water hose goes crazy over at the hair stylist station and soon turns into foamy soda, ruining clothing and hair.
Paige orbs home to consult the Book of Shadows after asking Leo for advice and it points to creatures called Nixies who are water spirits but nothing of any lightkeeper ghost.
When the wedding guests start arriving and the sisters meet James, Lyssa's presents present her with a wedding gift as part of tradition for something borrowed and old. It is a large yellow diamond in an octagon setting on a long chain that Lyssa's father calls The Light of The World, an old family heirloom. Everyone is stunned by it, but James seems highly interested in it more than his beautiful bride to be to Phoebe's chagrin.
Early spoiler that I'm sure isn't a spoiler: James gets possessed by the spirit of the lightkeeper who wants to seek revenge on the world for losing the love of his life whom he has never been reunited with. He plans to use The Light of The World to perform magic and call on ancient beings from beneath the water of the Northern California coast to destroy first Serenity Cove.
This would have made an interesting Charmed episode. My favorite part is when Phoebe hires a stripper for Lyssa's bachelorette party, and he just happens to be a sort of lust demon with fire powers named Simon. He owes Phoebe a favor and she needs him to try and trap the mischievous nixies, who are being controlled by the lighthouse keeper's ghost to ruin the wedding.
Simon also happens to be married to his manager and has an aversion to his mother-in-law. It is just something that has to be read to be believed.
Light of The World is a favorable entry in this tie-in series.
Piper and Phoebe receive a call from a childhood friend named Lyssa Ainsley, she is getting married and wants the girls including Paige to be her bridesmaids with Phoebe as her maid of honor. They back out at first because of all the demon activity but Leo says he can watch Wyatt and that the Charmed Ones need a break to recharge.
The wedding is being held in a seaside town called Serenity Cove at will take place at a gorgeous lighthouse picked out by Lyssa's fiancé James Agatt due to its history.
A lighthouse keeper one hundred years earlier lost his bride to be at sea when her ship sank. It sounds tragically romantic, but the lighthouse is said to be haunted by the lightkeeper's ghost out of believing the accident was planned by a rival also in love with the same woman named Trudy.
The keeper ended up disappearing soon after the other man was killed in a drowning accident.
The sisters hear the story being told by a woman at the local library to a group of kids and don't pay it any mind, but Phoebe makes friends with the older woman, Jenna, who is an author in the town. A town that is full of eccentric old women who chase kids with brooms, painters paint underwater, and an old man likes to spray paint the pigeons in town different colors.
Lyssa's parents have rented a mansion to house the wedding guests and caterers for their daughter's big day and though rich, they are very down-to-earth people and likeable. Paige is included in everything so it proves how nice Lyssa, and her family can be to welcome her as if she had grown up with Piper and Phoebe alongside Prue.
Shown a photo of James, the sisters all give their approval of the groom, yet Phoebe can't help but notice how similar in looks James resembles her former half demon, evil ex-husband Cole.
Soon, strange things start happening that seem to be signs that the wedding is cursed. Lyssa's wedding gown and the bridesmaid dressed become ruined when a water main breaks in the dress shop soon after a water hose goes crazy over at the hair stylist station and soon turns into foamy soda, ruining clothing and hair.
Paige orbs home to consult the Book of Shadows after asking Leo for advice and it points to creatures called Nixies who are water spirits but nothing of any lightkeeper ghost.
When the wedding guests start arriving and the sisters meet James, Lyssa's presents present her with a wedding gift as part of tradition for something borrowed and old. It is a large yellow diamond in an octagon setting on a long chain that Lyssa's father calls The Light of The World, an old family heirloom. Everyone is stunned by it, but James seems highly interested in it more than his beautiful bride to be to Phoebe's chagrin.
Early spoiler that I'm sure isn't a spoiler: James gets possessed by the spirit of the lightkeeper who wants to seek revenge on the world for losing the love of his life whom he has never been reunited with. He plans to use The Light of The World to perform magic and call on ancient beings from beneath the water of the Northern California coast to destroy first Serenity Cove.
This would have made an interesting Charmed episode. My favorite part is when Phoebe hires a stripper for Lyssa's bachelorette party, and he just happens to be a sort of lust demon with fire powers named Simon. He owes Phoebe a favor and she needs him to try and trap the mischievous nixies, who are being controlled by the lighthouse keeper's ghost to ruin the wedding.
Simon also happens to be married to his manager and has an aversion to his mother-in-law. It is just something that has to be read to be believed.
Light of The World is a favorable entry in this tie-in series.
April 5, 2023
I could never really decide whether I was enjoying this one or not. I think it fell into the trap of over explaining a lot and I felt that in the climax of the story, there was just so much going on, it was hard to keep track of everything. Found it a bit odd as well that Cole was mentioned so much all of a sudden. Not my favourite Charmed story but still a good one.
May 4, 2017
I really enjoy books that have to do with the history, mystery, or magic involved with jewelry. In this case, it was a diamond ring that one of the sisters friends was receiving. The story was well constructed, and never lost pace. The magic behind the ring was also very well done, not silly.
May 16, 2022
Fairly average, but entertaining enough.
January 2, 2015
Like all the other Charmed novels, a great book, and just as good as the actual show.
Read
March 22, 2010F CHA
Fantasy
Fantasy
Read
August 27, 2012loved the show and the book is just what you expect from the show. anyone who loves the show will love this book.
July 24, 2011
Another great Charmed book.
November 7, 2025
Not the best Charmed book, but not the worst either (although it did get kind of close). I feel like there just wasn’t an understanding of the show by the author, so it’s just meh…
Read
July 27, 2011Great book i enjoyed it very much it was good read amd i thought it was a good book
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews