The Gates of Sleep by Mercedes Lackey

Marina Roeswood is the daughter of two powerful and gifted Elemental Mages, Alanna and Hugh Roeswood. But when her aunt cursed her at her Christening for not being invited, her parents were forced to abandon her into the arms of their close friends, Margherita and Sebastian Tarrant, and stay far away from the daughter they loved to protect her life.

So Marina grows into young adulthood in the care of the Tarrants and another close friend, Thomas Buford, in a small cottage in the Lake Country, friend to the creatures of her Element, which is water, to the creatures of earth, and perhaps even to those of air as well. She spends her time being tutored in schoolwork, helping her aunt Margherita and acting as an unpaid model for Sebastian Tarrant. She lives a mostly carefree life, but she is troubled by how her parents keep sending her art supplies for her birthday, when she would rather have musical instruments. But she trades them to her "Uncle" Sebastian in exchange for instruments and sheet music.

But as Marina begins to learn the true power of her element, and all the things it can do from the Elemental Water Master Elizabeth Hastings, her mother and father are killed in an accident overseas, and she is immediately shipped off to her maternal aunt, Arachne, deprived of nearly everything familiar to her, and expected to know... or learn quickly, what is being taught to her.

Off guard at first, Marina quickly adapts to her situation. But her aunt has darker plans in place for her, and is owner of a series of pottery plants that employ young women who, unbeknownst to them, are talented in the elements. As their bodies become sapped by the lead in the paints they use to decorate the pottery, they become sought after as mistresses, as the lead makes them beautiful, with pale, clear skin, bright eyes, and so on. but eventually the girls know they will die, and their anguish and feeling of shame after having become "fallen" are gathered up and used to give Arachne power.

And one day, when Marina goes riding, she meets a doctor, Andrew Pike, the owner of a sanitarium, and an Elemental Master of Earth, while rescuing one of his patients. It turns out the girl has been poisoned by lead, and she offers her help to get the lead that is in the girl's body out. He welcomes it, and even though they are interrupted by her cousin Reggie, an odious man who Marina detests, she is able to meet with him first in his Sanitorium and then at the Vicar's house to keep up the treatments.

Meanwhile, Marina is romanced by Reggie, but isn't having any of it. She just finds him too arrogant and boasting and horrible to bear. But in order to find out the truth of what is happening in the Porcelain Manufactories, Marina consents to a trip to Exeter to find out what is really going on. But on her way home, Arachne finds out that Marina has been doing things that Arachne doesn't want her to do, and she trips the curse that she set on Marina, sending her into something like a coma, and trapping her in her own mind.

Back in the real world, Arachne sends her to Andrew's Sanitarium to be housed as her body slowly rots away, but Andrew realizes that Arachne is behind Marina's collapse, and agrees to take her, for an inflated fee. Once he has her, he tries to free her from the curse, but everything is useless. It's only the arrival of her former guardians and the accessing of a grammary that he finds out what has been done to Marina, and how to save her.

As for Marina, trapped in her mind, in Arachne's curse, must send the curse back into Arachne and make the curse rebound on the caster. But can Marina, armed with only her personal magic and her wits, defeat someone as old, twisted and steeped in treachery as her aunt Arachne?

Another excellent novel from Mercedes Lackey. Part of her "Elemental Masters"- this one focuses on a Water Master, and is based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. Marina is intelligent and beautiful, but not full of herself. She has a good head on her shoulders and because of it is able to survive, adapt and prosper in the midst of her aunt's schemes.

And yes, her aunt is evil, but not as evil as she could be. Her son, the odious Reggie, is a Satanist, but she is a skeptic and unbeliever. And yes, in my mind that makes her less evil rather than more, but I think it was meant to seem the other way around. To those who might be offended, let me get straight to the point of saying it's not her beliefs or lack of them that make her evil- it's being seriously twisted for having not had magic in a family gifted in it.

She's just as evil as she needs to be... manipulative, evil and overconfident- all things that lead directly to her downfall. Especially the "Overconfident" part. And Andrew, who has the ability to hide his magic, is also perceptive enough to realize that Arachne had something to do with what happened to Marina, and had the training and help to get her out of it. The romance part is given short shrift-it's a love born out of being close to each other and respect for what each does that leads to love, but between the ending of the story proper and their wedding, it's close to two years- and each is already in love by the end of the book proper.

Fantasy fans will find a lot to love in this book, but even though it involves a romance, there's not really a lot that will fit what a romance fan normally thinks of as Romance- but it's a delightful treat nonetheless. Highly recommended.