Friends & Neighbors Books in Order

Friends & Neighbors spins out of The Merriams and zooms in on a single neighborhood along New York’s Hudson River Valley. Instead of billionaires, these stories celebrate shop owners, bartenders, and dreamers who are rebuilding both a struggling business district and their own lives.

The first book, The House of Hope & Chocolate, follows Alice Bailey, a woman who has always believed that chocolate can mend just about anything. After a series of personal wake-up calls, she finally opens the chocolate shop she has imagined since childhood, only to discover that some of her new neighbors resent an outsider arriving with big plans.

Among the skeptics is Hank O’Connor, the gruff owner of the local Irish pub, who is juggling financial stress of his own. As Alice fights to win over the block with truffles, stubborn optimism, and late-night heart-to-hearts, she and Hank develop a slow, satisfying connection built on shared vulnerability.

In The Dreamer’s Flower Shoppe, Rose Fiorni comes home after losing her airline job and slipping into a rut. Expanding her father’s old greenhouse into a backyard flower business seems like a fantasy until the neighborhood starts knocking on her door for bouquets and advice. Childhood friend Vinnie Scorsese helps her navigate everything from town regulations to unexpected romantic feelings.

Both books highlight how a handful of people determined to show up for each other can transform an entire street.

Readers familiar with Ava Miles’s larger world will spot cameos, including Clifton Hargreaves, the dignified butler from Dare Valley and The Merriams, now finding his own path and chosen family here. The tone is cozy and sensory, full of cocoa, blossoms, and back-room meetings, but the stories do not shy away from grief, illness, or economic anxiety.

Taken together, Friends & Neighbors reads like a love letter to old-fashioned main streets and the power of local community. It is a good mini-series to pick up if you like small-business romances, grumpy-sunshine pairings, and stories where the entire neighborhood becomes part of the happily ever after.