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IMPORTANT: Who is the Hottest Nicholas Sparks Movie Hunk?

The Longest Ride, the latest big screen adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks weepie, is a star vehicle for leading man Scott Eastwood. Not only is the 29-year-old actor/model a major talent (hey, it runs in the family), but he's a bona fide hunk. And if there's any place that's a breeding ground for Hollywood hotties, it's Nicholas Sparks movies.

Eastwood joins a long line of studs playing sensitive dreamboats (often with access to boats) that have included the likes of Ryan Gosling, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, and Liam Hemsworth. While he's got some stiff competition (just so many abs), Eastwood doesn't hold back the hunkiness in The Longest Ride. As a rugged but sensitive cowboy named Luke who does romance the old-fashioned way, the seriously sexy actor will have moviegoers swooning. (And very possibly "Yee haw!"-ing.)

In anticipation of The Longest Ride, which opens in theaters this weekend, and in appreciation of Sparks only casting total babes to play the leading men in his sappy romances, we're ranking the hotties from all 10 of these movies.

10. Kevin Costner in Message in a Bottle 

With all due respect to the handsome Kevin Costner, in the world of Nicholas Sparks, his younger, hunkier counterparts reign supreme. Not even romantic letters sent from beyond a watery grave can get him a higher spot on this list.

9. Richard Gere in Nights in Rodanthe

Same goes for this silver fox. While we wouldn't mind frolicking with Richard Gere on a picturesque beach, his character in Nights in Rodanthe is far more swoonworthy than all-out sexy.

8. James Marsden in The Best of Me

Poor James Marsden cannot catch a break in Nicholas Sparks movies. First, he gets dumped in The Notebook (more on that in a bit), and then he gets dumped in a forgettable movie all his own. Marsden's movie star charisma gets washed out in his dull romance about reunited lovers and tragic endings. Sounds familiar.

7. Josh Duhamel in Safe Haven 

Josh Duhamel upped the hottie factor by being both a hot widower and a hot dad in Safe Haven, but the movie's twist ending is far more memorable than the actor's fine beach body.

6. Liam Hemsworth in The Last Song

Not so much a study of Hemsworth's hotness (see The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for that instead) so much as a bittersweet time capsule of his ultimately doomed relationship with Miley Cyrus.

5. Shane West in A Walk to Remember 

If it were still 2002, Shane West would be much higher on this list, but our tastes have evolved over the past few years. Still, we'll always love his character Landon, and will always cry hard, inconsolable tears for him. Time definitely doesn't change that.

4. Channing Tatum in Dear John

It's not nearly as fun watching Tatum in army fatigues and wearing construction belts that are not part of some sort of stripper uniform, but, hey, it still gets the job done.

3. Scott Eastwood in The Longest Ride

He's a sexy cowboy with a sensitive side, do we really need to explain this any further?

2. Zac Efron in The Lucky One

Efron is definitely lucky to be this high on a list of Sparks movies, considering his on-screen romance with Taylor Schilling in The Lucky One is laughably bad. But you know what'll get you in the runner-up spot on a list of hotties? One seriously smoldering shower sex scene. Well played, Efron.

1. Ryan Gosling in The Notebook

Was there ever a shadow of a doubt about who would take the top spot here? Gosling plays both boyishly handsome and OH-MY-GOD-WHAT-A-HANDSOME-RUGGED-BEARDED-SEX-GOD-WHO-WILL-KISS-YOU-PASSIONATELY-IN-THE-RAIN in The Notebook and none of us will ever fully recover from it. It's hotness personified.

Shane West reveals why we keep going back to (and crying over) Sparks stories.

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[Images: 20th Century Fox; Warner Bros. [2]; Relativity Media [2]; Touchstone Pictures; Warner Bros.; Screen Gems; Warner Bros.; New Line Cinema]