Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Having reread The Shattered Chain, I wanted to go on and reread this one. I think it is a much stronger story. The Shattered Chain is actually several stories with overlapping characters with fairly wide time separations. The rescue of Melora and Jaelle from Shainsa and Jaelle's decision to stay with the Renunciates are really back-story to the main story, twelve years later, of Magda's mission to rescue Peter Haldane and her subsequent taking oath with the Renunciates.

Here we have the two women, one Darkovan and the other Terran "trading places" and each trying to find herself in the other's world.

Besides developing the characters Jaelle and Magda/Margali much more completely, this is the story in which Bradley really builds her image of the interaction between the contradictory societies of Darkover and the Terran Empire, and, in parallel, the contradictory natures and relationships between men and women, both trapped within the metaphorical chains placed on them by society and their upbringing. And all of that in the context of a really good story!