Description: "Elena Whitstone and her seven brothers, abandoned by her mother, find themselves with a new stepmother. At first she seems more neglectful than evil, until just after Christmas, [when] she proves herself to be worse than evil: she is an actual magician, a Master of Water, who attempts to murder Elena's seven brothers when they are skating. When they survive that attempt by transforming into swans, she drives them away. But the shock of having all of his heirs perish in a frozen pond is too much for Elena's father. He dies, and his widow is abruptly confronted with the inconvenient truth that the estate is entailed, and she not only must leave, she is lawfully in charge of Elena"--
