Family-Owned New Port Richey Bookstore Sets Opening Date

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — A new family-owned bookstore in New Port Richey is ready to welcome Pasco County bibliophiles through its doors.

Novel in the Neighborhood, at 8507 Old County Road 54, has set its opening date for March 1. There will be cupcakes by Sugar Darlings, a food truck, and free crafts that day, as well as free goodie bags for the first 50 visitors.

The shop, which sells new books, puzzles, games and literary gifts, is a true family affair.

Tiffany Butts and her son, Tristan Butts, 21, will run the store together.

Meanwhile, her husband, Chris, serves as “the unpaid maintenance man,” and her youngest son, 17-year-old Tyler, will work as a bookseller, according to the store’s website.

Tiffany has always been an avid reader and from a young age, imagined herself one day owning a bookstore.

“Opening this store has been a dream of mine since I was a kid,” she told Patch. “I always wanted to do it but never thought it was possible to do until now.”

Raising her two boys kept her busy and she enjoyed a career working first in school libraries for a number of years, and then in the nonprofit world as an event planner.

She first looked into opening a bookstore about five years ago, but the timing wasn’t right.

Since then, Florida and federal laws have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at schools and businesses, she said. “[At nonprofits] I was doing a lot of the DEI stuff and all of that kind of blew up. It made things so incredibly difficult for the nonprofits I was working for. It made the job so difficult … It became more of a dread to have to go to work.”

Watching her struggle with these changes, her husband suggested to her, “It’s time.”

So, Tiffany and Tristan picked up her research into opening a bookstore where she left off, largely through training with the American Booksellers Association and other organizations.

“And we never looked back,” she said.

She raised her sons as avid readers, and following in her footsteps, her eldest also got the bookstore bug as a child.

“I’ve wanted to do this ever since I was little and went to New York for the first time and saw all the bookstores there,” Tristan told Patch. “I knew immediately it was something I wanted to do. My mom was the one who instilled the love of reading in me. Getting the chance to do this with her is extremely exciting.”

They each come into the business with their own interests, making for a highly curated selection.

“She reads more romance and mysteries; I read more horror and sci fi and poetry,” he said. “So, it’s a merging of everything to create something where anyone can come in here and find something they want.”

The store will be community focused and Tiffany hopes it will serve as a gathering spot.

“I want it to be a space where you can come in, sit down, have a cup of coffee, play some games, and just be able to be,” she said. “We have a heavy event focus and I’m super excited about that.”
The shop’s name, Novel in the Neighborhood, is a nod both to her commitment to the New Port Richey community and the influence of Fred Rogers on her childhood, she added.

“I grew up loving ‘Mr. Rogers’ [Neighborhood,]’ like absolutely loving Mr. Rogers, and I would love when he would read; he would always read stories. He focused on community and neighbors and that was something that has stuck on me my whole life,” Tiffany said. “I wanted a place for all of our neighbors - not just some of our neighbors, all of them. Everyone is welcome; everyone can find themselves in a book here.”

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