The Time for Change: Blank Spaces by Cass Lennox

Blank Spaces by Cass Lennox is the first novel in the four novel Toronto Connections series. Lennox is an author who writes glorious queer romance novels and can be depended on for a solid happily ever after.

In this book, we're introduced to Vaughn, a art gallery clerk who paints on the side and can only afford his deluxe apartment and his low wage job because he comes from family money. He has friends, a loving family, but he struggles with intimate relationships and so he's decided to just avoid that part of life. There's a theft at the art gallery where Vaughn works and that's when he meets Jonah, a playboy insurance investigator. Jonah is Vaughn's opposite in that he's an orphan who grew up in foster care, doesn't have a ton of money, and is confident in his sexuality. And yet there's an attraction...

Interesting characters:

Vaughn represents someone that I haven't really read any other types of books about. He's asexual and uncomfortable with some sexual contact (not all - he likes to kiss and cuddle in some circumstances). Again, just because I haven't personally read another book with a character like this doesn't mean those books aren't out there, but I thought it was brave of Lennox to both show asexual representation and do so in a romance novel. Now, there absolutely are chaste romance novels out there, but Lennox does not write closed door books, so it was absolutely interesting to see Lennox write scenes with these restrictions. And once Vaughn and Jonah have an honest conversation about Vaughn's asexuality, the scenes in which they talk about consent and boundaries are important to have in the book and were great models for other people to use.

Jonah was not as interesting a character to me. He was quite comfortable in his sexuality, but seemed to be using sex as an outlet to deal with his emotional distress over his complicated family history. I just wanted him to deal with his shit, rather than take it out on Vaughn all the time, but that probably says more about me than it says about him. I think it was just that I'd never read anyone like Vaughn before, but I've definitely seen characters similar to Jonah before.

So, yes, there were interesting characters and it was an interesting pair of characters to center a romantic story around.

Believable conflict:

I think this was the part of the book that was simply fascinating to me. How was Lennox going to give a HEA to two people with such polar opposite sex drives? This is a great conflict to center a romance novel around. This is not the "fault" of either character - they're just different people with different sexual desires - and yet they still have feelings for one another. Very clever plotting on the part of Lennox, I think.

Emotional tension:

So, there's the tension between the two main leads because of their mismatched sex drives, but there's also an interesting tension because Jonah is investigating the art gallery where Vaughn works in a mini-mystery subplot. Vaughn could potentially be a suspect for the thefts from the gallery because he keeps discovering the thefts. There's a lot here. I didn't necessary think that the mystery subplot was that interesting, but it did lead to some interesting scenes between the two of them.

Happily ever after:

I think this is the most controversial part of the book. I don't know how many asexual people would feel about the ending. Some of the Goodreads reviews seem to think it makes Vaughn seem like a pushover and the balance of power in the relationship is unequal*. Others seem to think it's the representation that matters and the ending didn't really matter to them. I don't know. There are three other books in the series and it would be interesting to see how much these two grow as a couple throughout the series because the ending wasn't entirely satisfying to me. But, then, I'm not asexual, so putting my expectations of what "happy" looks like onto other people isn't really fair, is it? I guess what I'm trying to say here is that it wouldn't be happily ever after for me, but I'm not them. It's similar, to my way of thinking, to how frustrating I find endings centered around pregnancies and babies, which wouldn't be something I'd celebrate, but I'm not them.

There is so much to learn about other human beings, isn't there?

*As a matter of fact, the very scene I wrote about earlier about how it's the right way to ask for consent and boundaries, someone in the Goodreads comments wrote that it was immediately then that Jonah started asking Vaughn to push his boundaries. There's just so much contradiction in how people interpret the same content.

Lines of note:

Vaughn was like a lobster - dressed up and on a roll. He was giddiness and joy, words spilling out of him like he couldn't hold them in. This guy really loves this stuff. Wow. Jonah almost felt bad he didn't get what the hell Vaughn was saying. (page 71)

I really love when you get to see people talking/performing about things they are really interested in, even if I don't understand what the hell they're going on about.

It was confusing to feel horny and intellectually inadequate. (page 72)

Ha ha. This is my whole life. Being married to a phenomenally smart person can be humbling.

He did realize he'd just insulted Vaughn's career choice, right? And that he was so absolutely wrong it was laughable? Art was basic. Art was fundamental. Art predated writing. (page 74)

Art is so important. It's frustrating when people don't understand how very essential art is to the human condition.

Things I looked up:

Did art predate writing? (page 74) - Yes, for sure. Some linguists hypothesize that cave art led human language.

Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a 1995 oil on canvas painting by Lucian Freud depicting an obese, naked woman lying on a couch. The painting once held the world record for the highest price paid for a painting by a living artist when it was sold for $33.5 million in May 2008. (the painting was mentioned on page 164)