Review: Pride, Prejudice, and Turkish Delight by K.C. McCormick Ciftci

Pride, Prejudice, & Turkish Delight by K.C. McCormick Çiftçi

Recommended: yep!
for a cute story with parallels to a classic lit story, for an adventure story, for a story about taking risks and finding yourself, for lots of teaching pedagogy and moments that teachers will fully resonate with, for career and friendship and romance decisions

Summary

Having led a safe (admittedly boring) life until now, Eliza Britt wasn’t about to turn down the opportunity to work in Antalya, Turkey. With the Mediterranean calling, she was excited to help lead the university’s English department and to finally have a little adventure in her life.

On arrival Eliza soon realizes that her new posting won’t be all cerulean waters and exploring a new culture. Instead she’s faced with Deniz Aydem. Forced to work together, Eliza isn’t sure she will be able to ignore his arrogance or the unexpected attraction she feels for him.

Eliza and Deniz differ in every way. She’s American, he’s Turkish. She embraces her sense of humor, whereas Deniz has a serious disposition. But regardless of all their differences, something is simmering beneath the surface of their interactions. Whether it’s love or just an intense dislike for each other remains to be seen.

Thoughts

The title alone makes it clear that this is meant to be a bit of a parallel to pride and prejudice, but it definitely can stand on its own. There are certainly parallels to Austin’s story, but they are more like little fun bonuses if you know what to look for. For anyone not interested or not familiar with pride and prejudice, this will still be a fun read.

As a former teacher, I enjoyed the realism with which the profession was portrayed. There are so many struggles faced, and I would say that the struggles of from the admin side are not usually the perspective we see. It’s clear for teachers how administration can make daily life harder, but rarely is there a story where the admin making life harder is the protagonist. I appreciated the sensitive insight here and the learning that the main character does in regards of her career and how her decisions affected her teams and teachers and ultimately her students.

There was a lot more discussion about pedagogy and teaching philosophy than I expected however, and I think for people who are not interested in it it might get to be a bit much. Sometimes it felt like I was reading transcripts from my college classes on The subjects, which while I enjoyed, didn’t seem as approachable to non-teachers.

And of course, I love that the story is set in Turkey! The setting truly mattered, and we got to be vicarious tourists. There’s a lot of exploration of places and food, sure, but there’s also a lot of investigation into the culture and expectations they have. I loved seeing in several kinds of ways how the culture of Turkey and the culture of those who had moved there from other places were meshing and at times clashing. There was a lot of sensitivity in the times when they didn’t blend well.

There’s some romance, but it’s a bit of a distant romance that is a slow-burn for sure. The other relationships in the story are what take more precedence for the majority of the story. Primarily, this is a story about identity and taking risks, more than a cut-and-dry romance. The biggest romance was the main character falling in love with Turkey, and I really enjoyed being along for the ride.

Overall I quite enjoyed this story, and I would definitely recommend it. I’m really excited to see that this appears to be the first in a series, and I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes peeled for the next ones!

Thank you to the author and StoryGraph for a free copy. This is my honest review!