Amazon.com Editorial Review

The Truth About Cinnamon: A Novel      
by Cheri Laser

I hardly know how to begin to describe my appreciation and love for this novel. Cheri Laser, who seems to be quite an amazing woman herself based on her bio, has written one of the most remarkable, engaging, and downright precious books I have ever been fortunate enough to read. Not only has she brought to life some of the most vivid and unforgettable characters I have met in a long time, she did this for not one but five generations of an American family. The emphasis is on the women of that family, but there are some amazing men who also weave themselves into the story. It sounds cliché to say that I laughed, I cried, etc., but in this case it is the absolute truth.

Even the title of the book is intriguing. Cinnamon, I must tell you, is the name of the central character in the story, the grand lady who connects all of the generational players in this incredible drama. As we first meet her, she is an elderly lady determined to tell the story of her life before she passes. She drafts her grand-daughter Megan for this last special project, revealing deep and far-reaching family secrets to her; she then charges Megan with one final task, the unraveling of a family mystery and tragedy dating back almost five decades. Cinnamon's story is complemented by a number of journal articles, letters, poems, and precious artifacts, and I still can't get over just how real and inherently human all the players in this extended drama are - you don't merely read about their lives, you are there to witness each of them first-hand.

We start with Amelia and Nathaniel, a young married couple who, in 1875, left their home in Ireland to sail to the United States in search of a prosperous life together. The next significant family member we meet is Jonathon McClinty's wife Mimi, Amelia's daughter-in-law. Together, the two women embark on an extraordinary interior decorating plan for their new home, hiring a number of the town's less prosperous craftsmen and artists to do the work. These noble artisans and craftsmen become an extended family to Mimi and her children for decades to come, especially after Mimi and her young daughter Cinnamon are suddenly (and quite coldly) ushered out of Jonathon McClinty's life, starting Mimi on a heartbreaking journey to a rather tragic end. Even when Mimi finds happiness and a new life in New York, fate soon reappears to pull the rug out from under her feet yet again. This will become a pattern in the lives of the McClinty women.

While we meet Cinnamon's daughter Claudine in the latter section of the book and get to know Cinnamon's grand-daughter Megan quite well along the way, this truly is Cinnamon's story. She led an amazing life filled with times of great happiness as well as times of terrible loss and regret. While the tragedies she had to bear seem far too excessive for such a lovely, vibrant lady, she overcame each obstacle that was placed in her way, proved herself to be an independent, self-reliant woman in the years of the Great Depression, succeeded in life in all manner of ways, and kept the whole extended McClinty family together as she grew old. It is hard to imagine how she could have lived for decades with the secret she reveals to Megan in these pages, but that, as they say, is really just the beginning. The unlocking of this secret leads to evidence of a series of tragedies that, fortunately, Cinnamon was never forced to comprehend and deal with on her own. In fact, Megan herself can hardly deal with the shocking truths she uncovers.