Virtual Book Tour: Blank Spaces by Cassie Lennox (Review + Giveaway)

Virtual Book Tour: Blank Spaces by Cassie Lennox (Review + Giveaway)

About Blank Spaces

Absence is as crucial as presence.

The decision to stop dating has made Vaughn Hargrave’s life infinitely simpler: he has friends, an excellent wardrobe, and a job in the industry he loves. That’s all he really needs, especially since sex isn’t his forte anyway and no one else seems interested in a purely romantic connection. But when a piece is stolen from his art gallery and insurance investigator Jonah Sondern shows up, Vaughn finds himself struggling with that decision.

Jonah wants his men like his coffee: hot, intense, and daily. But Vaughn seems to be the one gay guy in Toronto who doesn’t do hookups, which is all Jonah can offer. No way can Jonah give Vaughn what he really wants, not when Jonah barely understands what love is.

When another painting goes missing, tension ramps up both on and off the clock. Vaughn and Jonah find themselves grappling not just with stolen art, but with their own differences. Because a guy who wants nothing but romance and a guy who wants nothing but sex will never work—right? Not unless they find a way to fill in the spaces between them. 

Now available from Riptide Publishing. http://riptidepublishing.com/titles/blank-spaces

About Cass Lennox

Cass Lennox is a permanent expat who has lived in more countries than she cares to admit to and suffers from a chronic case of wanderlust as a result. She started writing stories at the tender age of eleven, but would be the first to say that the early years are best left forgotten and unread. A great believer in happy endings, she arrived at queer romance via fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, and manga, and she can’t believe it took her that long. Her specialties are diverse characters, gooey happy ever afters, and brownies. She’s currently sequestered in a valley in southeast England.

Connect with Cass:

• Blog: casslennox.wordpress.com/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/Cass-Lennox-1704635609768647/
• Twitter: twitter.com/CassLennox

3.5* DO NOT SKIP TO THE EPILOGUE FIRST, or you may miss out on a pretty good tale.

This isn't a traditional romance as most readers of romance would know/expect/love, but it works for the leads, if not for me. I started it, and it dragged a little at first, and I made the mistake of going to the epilogue and nearly didn't bother reading it, but then I figured I'd asked for a copy from NetGalley and felt that morally, I owed the publisher a read, so here goes.

The writing is very good and the characters and storyline, which had a mystery/theft to it, were all interesting. It wasn't too procedural-heavy and it wasn't frou-frou, but all seemed IRL. I liked Vaughn, despite his slight weirdness, and I enjoyed his discovery, his dissection and his acceptance of himself. I liked that he didn't wallow in any kind of funk or self-pity. I ended up quite liking Jonah, despite the total slut the author made him out to be; he was honest and open about his wants, his selfishness and his needs and that he wasn't prepared to change, in love or not. 

The tale was realistic, I think, but not my idea of a romance and had I just relied on the epilogue, I'd have likely skipped this tale. Instead, I opened my mind and let the guys find what suited them. I read a Riptide tale recently with a couple of similarly-unsuited leads, and that totally didn't and couldn't work, for me, and for, seemingly, other readers, but strangely, this one did. And, with both parties agreeing to their...relationship's parameters, this worked for them. I still didn't like one part of the epilogue, as what got expressed there wasn't quite a need, but an 'I want', which for me is a bit different to an itch that you absolutely have to scratch.

I'm not sure if these guys will last the distance and I'm not sure what kind of future they could have together, so for me, this doesn't end in a HEA, more a HFN-ish.

ARC courtesy of the publisher for my reading pleasure. 

Giveaway

To celebrate the release of Blank Spaces, one lucky winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to All Romance Ebooks! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 19, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!