Dimbie and I—and Amelia

It's 1907, and Marguerite Westover has everything she ever wanted: a husband named Dimbie and a London flat bathed in spring sunshine. But marriage, she discovers, is not quite the fairy tale her romantic heart imagined. Between Dimbie's prolonged absences to tend to family matters and Amelia, the irreplaceable, chaotic servant whose 'unique approaches' regularly upend the household, Marguerite finds herself navigating the tender absurdity of newlywed life. Barnes-Grundy writes with wry affection about the small crises of domesticity: missed dinners, miscommunication, the particular loneliness of waiting for someone you love to come home. Yet beneath the gentle comedy lies something more honest: a portrait of a woman learning that contentment requires courage, and that happiness often arrives not in grand gestures but in spring sunshine and the quiet assurance of being deeply known.