Sweet Cheeks

Hallelujah ... I'm free! It's over. At 10 hours plus this was no joke, and ABs are hard to skim through, though I did try. I only persisted because of [a:Andi Arndt 6746963 Andi Arndt https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1381410479p2/6746963.jpg]. She quelled my instinct to slap Saylor, the heroine. I usually like [a:Sebastian York 7266223 Sebastian York https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] too, but his heart wasn't in this and I can't say I blame him.Though I've never read a Nicholas Sparks book, I have seen movie adaptations of his books, and this has that feel, with the enormous difference that a movie is under 2 hours and I can do a number of things while it's playing in the background and this was 10+hours requiring my attention. Ugh.The story kicks off on a bad note. Saylor, the heroine, is aggrieved when she receives an invitation to her former fiancee's wedding. She's mad that he is getting married. Upset that the new couple seems to be using all of her wedding plans. Annoying perhaps, but reason to be mad? Uh ... no. She broke-up with him! Basically she's pissed that when she called off the wedding and told him she didn't love him anymore Mitch, her ex, didn't grovel and beg her to stay. Rich coming from someone who never got over her teenage boyfriend.On paper our Saylor is everything. She's made out of caramel & sprinkles. She's the tall leggy blonde who's still somehow insecure about her looks. She's crazy about baking cupcakes and loves volunteering at pet shelters. Blah blah blah .... The girl who disdains money but manages to hook up with two rich guys. Yeah. In comes Hayes Whitley, international movie star and heartthrob to save the day. Hayes was Saylor's teenage sweetheart. He had the temerity to leave town at 19 to pursue a Hollywood dream. He didn't get back in touch, and that was bad, but doesn't make him a villain. It makes him 19, ambitious, and driven. Meanwhile our girl mourned his absence for four years, to the point of ruining her health. To her rescue came Mitch and she was with him for six years, but apparently halfheartedly so. Clingy much? Her world, (despite the author trying to convince us otherwise) revolves around the men in her life. They protect and coddle her which is nice, but besides the passion for cupcakes, she doesn't seem to have much going on or actual friends. It always rubs me the wrong way when women in fiction not only don't seem to have any friends, female particularly, but compound that by having nothing nice to say for the women in the story. Here we have uptight-Ursula and rebound-Sara and all the catty women at coffee shop or the wedding or the club etc. You get the idea. The whole story revolves around Hayes making up to Saylor for having left and lived a life and Saylor having interminable inner monologues about what she's feeling or thinking, what she thinks Hayes is thinking, what happened in the previous chapter etc. etc. etc. I was bored sensless.