Sunday, May 4, 2025

About the Book

Book: Lizzie’s Little Mouse (The Heart of the Amish Series Book Eight)

Author: Anne Blackburne

Genre: Amish/Christian Fiction

Release date: April, 2025

Lizzie Has Dreams That Won’t Be Deterred

Full of faith, hope, and romance, this new series takes you into the Heart of Amish country.

Ever since attending a wedding in Louisiana, Lizzie Miller has been fascinated by French baked goods. With permission of her parents and bishop, she did a two-year internship in a French bakery in New Orleans. When a local Amish bakery became available, she bought it and opened her own French inspired bakery.

But now someone wants her out of business. During her grand opening, a strange man accosts her, then a brick is tossed through her window wrapped in a note telling her to leave. Someone breaks into her apartment above the bakery, and her cat chases the intruder out.

With the help of her friends, Lizzie will get to the bottom of why someone wishes her to fail. And at the same time, she’ll realize that sometimes dreams can be fulfilled with what—or who—was always close at hand, just waiting to be noticed.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Anne Blackburne lives and works in Southeast Ohio as a newspaper editor and writer. She is the mother of five grown children, has one wonderful grandchild, and a spoiled poodle named Millie. For fun, when she isn’t working on Amish romance or sweet mysteries, Anne directs and acts in community theater productions and writes and directs original plays. She also enjoys reading, kayaking, swimming, searching for beach glass, and just sitting with a cup of coffee looking at large bodies of water. Her idea of the perfect vacation is cruising and seeing amazing new places with people she loves.

More from Anne

I’m so excited that once again, the amazing bloggers who work with Celebrate Lit are going to do a blog tour for my brand new book in Barbour’s “Heart of the Amish” series, “Lizzie’s Little Mouse”!

Lizzie’s story is available now to readers in print and online wherever fine books are sold, and I feel so blessed to have the help of the Celebrate Lit folks in launching this wonderful story.

If you read either of my previous two books in the series, “Ruth’s Gingersnap Surprise” and “Mary’s Calico Hope”, you’ll remember Elizabeth Miller, their sassy friend with the darling Haflinger pony named Goldie who gave Mary a ride one morning before church services. Elizabeth, or Lizzie, was also mentioned in Ruth’s story as one of the lucky recipients of a kitten from their elderly friend, Lydia’s, cat’s final litter.

Lizzie’s cat is a gray kitty she named Petit Souris, which is French for Little Mouse. Why Little Mouse? Because as a tiny kitten, the darling reminded Lizzie of a mouse!

And why the French name? Well, our heroine is not your typical Amish miss. After attending a wedding in New Orleans as a teen and tasting the amazing baked goods for which the city is renowned, Lizzie began dreaming of opening her very own New Orleans style French bakery – in Ohio’s Amish country!

She loves everything to do with New Orleans, and learned to speak their dialect of French while doing an internship in a bakery there when she was 18. Upon returning home she went to work at the local bakery to learn more about the business, and to save up for her dreams.

As the story opens, we find that Lizzie’s dream has come true! It’s opening day of The Plain Beignet, Lizzie’s bakery in Willow Creek, Ohio. Everyone comes out to wish her well, including friends you’ll recognize from my first two books!

But when something unexpected and frightening happens during the grand opening, it becomes apparent that not everyone is as happy as Lizzie and her friends about her success.

Along with some help from her pals, and her best friend Jane’s handsome big brother, John, Lizzie will get to the bottom of the mystery of who wants to put her out of business, and why!

They discover, among other things, that Lizzie’s bakery was the site of a murder a hundred years before! What could this historic crime have to do with Lizzie’s current problems?

As she, John and their friends search for clues, Lizzie will discover that there’s more baking than her latest batch of beignets!

Could it be romance?

Thank you for taking the time to learn about Lizzie’s story! This book is my third in Barbour Publishing’s series, “The Heart of the Amish”. Look for other great reads in the series from authors Mindy Steele and Lisa Jones Baker.

I’m currently writing my fourth book in the series, which will feature a young woman you’ve met in all my other stories, Jane Bontrager.

Just like her friends, Jane received a kitten from their friend, Lydia; a little brown tabby. Her story, “Plain Jane’s Secret Admirer”, is due out in early winter 2026. .

I hope you’re having as much fun reading about these remarkable young women – and their kitties! – as I’m having writing about them. Thanks for being part of our journey!

As for me and mine, we are all well and enjoying spring in southeast Ohio. In other words, enjoying the sunshine, but carrying a sweater and an umbrella, just in case!

God bless you and yours!

Joyfully,

Anne Blackburne

MY REVIEW

I really enjoyed the story and getting to watch Lizzie’s dream of opening her own bakery. She is excited to share her treats with others and welcomes people at her grand opening. I could smell the pastries as they were pulled from the oven. One person is not happy that Lizzie has incorporated French pastries to her menu. His threat is ominous and later will play a big part in who wants to scare her enough to close her bakery.

One thing that really struck me was when someone was saying, “even though we belong to different church districts, we’re all Amish, and we’re suppose to support each other.” As Christians we should be supporting each other instead of judging or trying to cause strife. We all serve one God and should not be trying to stir up trouble because we may not agree on everything. This was so powerful to read how the Amish support each other and don’t like division.

I really liked John and how protective he is over Lizzie. He does seem to overstep himself when he tries to encourage Lizzie in what to do when she is threatened and her business is broken into. Does she realize that maybe John has feelings for her? Will their relationship develop into more than a friendship?

I liked reading about the history of the building where Lizzie’s bakery is. What an intriguing mystery the building holds and I couldn’t wait to see who was behind the tragedy that happened so long ago. It made me wonder how the mystery from so long ago was related to what was going on with Lizzie and her building. The author does a great job of keeping readers interested with great characters, faith and a mystery that starred years ago.

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.