I have read all of the novels Harmony novels (nearly all. got one left) by Jayne Castle and I am still a bit confused.

At some point a Curtain (a portal) opened on Earth to other worlds. One of these worlds is Harmony. People went there and colonized it. They brought their pets and gadgets and what not. Than the Curtain closed, trapping everyone on Harmony and leaving them with no way to get supplies. Their very survival was in question.

At this point, from what I understand, the colonists made two types of marriages: convent and convenient.

Convent Marriages are nearly unbreakable. At least not without sever legal and financial consequences. I am guessing there are social consequences, too. Marriages of Convenience are, well, convenient. Easy come, easy go. Unless you have children, in which case you end up automatically in a Convent Marriage.

Me, I don’t get it. Even the characters call Marriages of Convenience a short-term affair, only respectable. Which seems kind of silly to me.

Why not just move in? It’s before you decide you want to spend forever and ever with your SO. It’s while you are deciding your SO is the one you are meant to be with forever and ever.

Why even bother with a short-term marriage? (Also does short-term marriage feel like an oxymoron to anyone else?)

Creating a world with two different types of marriages seems excessively complicated to me. I don’t understand why she did it at all. What is the point? Really, I don’t get it.

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