Trying to find a book where the main character is female, main theme is trading and clans or gypsies

Question

I am trying to find a book where the main character is a female who has been forced to leave her home planet, she gets work on a space ship which is lead by a clan or gypsies and she starts a trading empire...something along those lines anyway. Appreciate any suggestions. I have read the book sometime in the last 15 years but cannot remember the name of the book or the author.

Her home planet was very religious and male dominated. Her trading success led to a meeting of the clans/gypsies where they united?
Sorry can't remember any more details.

Answer 1

It took to me a bit to find this. "The Outcast", book five of "The Empire's Corps" by Christopher Nuttall.

• the main character is a female who has been forced to leave her home planet: check. Sameena Hussein. Her brother contradicts a religious teacher (not a "leader", as the blurb says) and the family falls afoul of the Guardians of Morality; she flees from the planet with the grudging help of her uncle Muhammad.
• she gets work on a space ship which is lead by a clan or gypsies - check. She gets "adopted" by the Hamilton clan of the Trader ship Logan.
• and she starts a trading empire... check. She escaped with some Sunflower seeds, that are the basis to distill Dragon's Tears, a very rare and very precious liquor. In time, she becomes known as the Trader Queen.
• Her home planet was very religious and male dominated. Check. It was a Moslem sect that had escaped Earth to seek "purity", and after discovering the sunflower berries had hatched a plot to spread disease in the Galaxy and conquer it in a glorious jihad.
• Her trading success led to a meeting of the clans/gypsies where they united? check. The whole story happens just after the fall of the Galactic Empire, and she succeeds in uniting the clans under her command and stabilizing her own stellar sector. After that, the story fuses with the Empire Corps main story.

Answer 2

I'm going to guess Necessity's Child, 16th (!) in the Liaden Universe series.

Excerpt from a Goodreads review:

There is another fabulous character, a feisty young girl named Kezzi (aka Anna). Kezzi is of the Bedel people, and apprenticed to old Silain, the grandmotherly luthia, a gifted healer and seer. The Bedel are futuristic Romany people, somewhat techno-savvy but still mystical and old fashioned. I thoroughly enjoyed the growing relationship between Kezzi and Syl Vor (the scenes immediately after the first day Kezzi went to school are hysterical).

I have not yet found a plot summary, but the Liaden books are generally about Clan Korval, who are interstellar traders.