I appreciate that the reviews for this book are basically of two kinds. 1) This is a beautiful and intricate look at space opera and choices and relationships. and 2) Lesbians in space!
Both are good. And de Bodard really does a gorgeous job with the romance aspect of it and weaving back and forth between how two traumatized people (ish) find their ways to each other.
And I do wonder if this book is also falling into the "queer desire is the revolutionary force" trap that Isaac and Alexis talk about on their podcast (called, naturally, Wizards versus Lesbians). Despite the absence of gender seeming to matter in the book (replaced by affiliation), the transgressive relationship is still meant to overturn the status quo and it does, but not entirely in a way that feels actually revolutionary. Trying to escape the trap of feeding your hungry child by taking the food from someone else's hands...and yet I'm not sure the book succeeds.
This is the danger of being serious: no one faults the monarchy in sff because we all know it's a silly construct meant to gratify wish fulfillment. But to interrogate piracy is to interrogate the rest of the system of commerce and de Bodard can't DO that and have a happy ending.
She has it both ways (ish) by keeping the conflict of morals out of the happiness of the ending: the love story is the resolution, not the satisfying revolution because it can't be. Which is sort of the wiz-les point (Wizards versus Lesbians is a great name for a podcast, but can the fans call themselves Les Wizerables?) - when queer desire and revolution stand in for one another, the successful conclusion of the love story stands in for the successful revolution. 
On the other hand, there's a sequel so we'll see where this goes!