Oh, hey, a new Anne Bishop book. In some ways, this is a departure from Bishop's usual fare - rather than writing Epic!Fantasy Romance, she's moved into the realm of Urban fantasy. But the gothicness remains and certain very noticeable quirks of characterization, stylistic choices and, oh, adorable puppies! are retained. So, yes, while Bishop can feel like a one-trick pony, it is a very good trick.
If you liked her other stuff, you'll like this. Even if you, like me, kinda hate urban fantasy. But the point of the book is not the grittiness of the urban fantasy (Bishop does dark very well, but never quite manages gritty), it's on the young, kinda waify girl and the culture of people who are not normal humans and therefore "better" (tm). As I said, one trick pony, but I'll come back every time to watch her perform it. We need our pleasures, even if I steadfastly refuse to feel guilt for enjoying things that fall far afield of the rigid boundaries of high art.

The review more or less ends here.

The short excerpt from the cultural studies article that I'll never write begins now.

The thing about Bishop's worlds is that they are always constructed with a with a very specific view of how gendered behavior should function in society. Men are physically stronger, but that strength is valued and valuable ONLY within the confines of service - to a lover, a family, a community, etc. The strong male character (Daemon Sadi is the prime example, but I will cheerfully go through every book of hers and find this archetype) submits himself to a deserving woman who--in some cases very literally and amusingly--holds the leash. Men serve; explicitly in The Black Jewels Trilogy, implicitly in everything else.
So, on the one hand, this is the fantasy of the romance novel. Patriarchy denies power to women, so a powerful woman who is also womanly does not rule, but rules through the taming of a powerful man. The quintessential figure is the (usually higher class, often with anger management issues, always attractive outside of the book if not inside*) male figure with total mastery over the self who finds himself overmastered by a woman. She is irresistible--by which I mean that his attraction to her is unshakeable and she need never fear losing it--and so he places his mastery over the world at her feet. She is powerful because she has power over him.
The best example for our day and age is Twilight. Edward is the epitome of powerful and his attraction to Bella is absolute.
So what differentiates Bishop from Meyer? On a simple level, the world itself. The threat of sexuality in Twilight is enfolded into the fear of being bitten and sex, while dangerous, is not a weapon that a man can wield against a woman. Sex in Twilight cannot be anything other than consensual. Rape, however, is always a possibility in Bishop. Violence again women is consistently a part of the world and taken seriously as such. Sexual mores in Black Jewels are constructed around an system that makes even more explicit the loss of agency (read power) that can come from rape. Anne Bishop - keeping it horrifying real. There is no cure for Briarwood. She does something similar with self-harm/cutting in this book, embedding it symbolically in a way that allows her to talk about what it can do without either condoning or trivializing its power. Her worlds may not be realistic, but they are resonatingly real.
Additionally, Bishop's attitude towards her powerful women who are powerful because they have power over/through men has an additional dimension that rests on an ethics of care. All of Bishop's waifs are singled out for reasons unknown, but earn their place and power by caring about and for others. You can spot her villains by their wooden characterizations and fundamental inability to think about anyone other than themselves. Goodness is equated
with doing good for others and THAT is what allows her female characters agency. Taking care of others (affective labor) is reciprocated and highly valued within Bishop's novels; all her female characters win their friends and security by caring for other people and that care, in turn, creates a willingness to serve. So their power is contingent on their goodness, but their goodness is not contingent at all.
In order to be powerful and to have mastery over male agency, one must embrace the affective labor of caring for others. And while caring is often spurned and devalued by our culture, Bishop's novels never fail to reward such goodness. Power is externalized through traditional forms, but its heart lies in the affective networks built by the woman who cares. Kaeleer's Heart indeed.

The management would like to apologize. Those responsible for writing the reviews have been sacked.
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*Do you think me handsome? Jane may say no, but 90% of Brontë's readerships begs to differ.