Where to begin? The premise of the story was interesting and had a lot of potential. Vivien is a casting director who's been in the business for 20 years. She's successful, has a happy marriage (so it seems) and a son who is about to break into the business. All of that comes crashing down when Vivien catches her husband having sex with his secretary in their hottub. You would think that you would feel sorry for Vivien's character after finding out that her husband has been having an affair. Wrong!Vivien Slate has to be the most unsympathetic character I have read in a very long time. She starts off being a mean, self-absorbed bitch. I was hoping that once she discovered her husband's affair, she would have an attitude adjustment and become more likable. Nope. If anything, she was worse. When she decides to create a fictional movie so that she can get her "How Stella Gets Her Groove Back" on, I thought that it was the most selfish thing a person could do. These men are struggling actors who are looking for that one great part to make their career. Vivien didn't have much of a conscience about leading these men on and basically using them and getting their hopes up for nothing. Needless to say, it comes back and bites her in the ass.Slate is riddled with characters that I could care less about. Brandon, Vivien's assistant, receives the brunt of her bitchiniess and abuse. Why he took the abuse, I don't know. Vivien barely paid him so it's not like he was rolling in the dough. Vivien's relationship with Brandon was inconsistent. She would act like Brandon is like family and then in the next instance she would be saying or thinking borderline homophobic thoughts about him. Say what? It needs to be one or the other; you either love him like a brother or you can't stand him. We meet a lot of characters in this book and none of them are fully fleshed out. The character development was weak. Why the author felt the need to explain a character's bout with IBS, I'll never know. It added nothing to the plot or the character. Due to some less than important traits that are revealed about the characters, we never learn what truly drives these people and don't have a chance to connect with them.Slate has the potential to be a good book. There were editing and plot consistency issues but I can overlook that. What I can't overlook is the unlikable characters. I've never read a book where I wished no one got their HEA.
