I wanted to read Elif Shafak's books once I finished "The Forty Rules of Love". Though The Forty Rules of Love remains my favorite book, The Bastard of Istanbul resonated with me a lot. The characters appeared to be a bit cliche but not dull. There is something interesting about them. As we go along the plot with these characters we see how the families and the characters are linked and that realization felt different. It gives a bit of a history lesson for people like me, as I was not aware of the Armenian Genocide.