I know I've only read two of Fran Wilde's tales, but I'm getting the impression that I'm just not her audience at all. 
 I was reading this for her Hugo nomination this year and I had high hopes because some authors can really kick butt with the shorter stuff even if their longer works fall short for some readers. (Read: me). 
 Unfortunately, the whole concept of jewels of power is a very, very old one, and while she tries to make it fresh by doing the whole linking them to their wearers and then having the added dimension of social caste rebalancing going on... well... it was kinda dull for me. I'd rather have the jewel action be a MacGuffin or something far-off rather than this. It's hard not to compare it to some really big classics, either, and in that comparison, this will always fall short. Alas. 
 Maybe this is fine for a younger YA reader who's never read anything else. I don't know. I just know that it didn't really do the job for me.