After I read the book Northern Lights, it ended up being one of the best books I had ever read, so naturally I had to see the movie. Now I knew going in, there was no way for the movie to be as good as the book. There was way too much detail in 600 plus pages to fit into an hour and a half. Leanne Rhimes isn't even close to looking like how i had Megan pictured, but she does the role well. All the other characters were cast very well in my opinion. I've seen a lot worse book adaptations before. They followed the story very well and as I said before, there was just a lot of detail that had to be watered down. Worth watching,just as it usually always is. The book was better.

"They keep taking Nora Roberts and pairing her wonderful novels to barely anything at all. Why does a mediocre guy like Nicholas Sparks get all of his novels on the big screen and Nora gets no special treatment beyond stunt casting?" I agree with this sentiment 100%. I read a lot, always have. I've never been a big romance or mystery lover but the first time i picked up a Nora Roberts novel I absolutely loved it and have read every book of hers I could find overseas since. I especially like her titles under her J.D. Rob pseudonym. The In Death line of books are fantastic! I just wish they could take such wonderful work.. and make a movie of at least near equal quality.

*** Spoiler Alert *** My wife is a devoted Nora Roberts fan, and so I have done my duty as a faithful and loving husband to DVR and watch all of these movies with her.From the husband's perspective, they're not terrible, but I certainly hope that the plotting in the books themselves hold up better than some of the plotting in the movie adaptations.In this one, early on we get two boys out hiking and finding a body. Do they take note of the spot and hike home to notify someone? No, one stays with the body while the other hangs around a clearing on a mountainside to flag down the search plane.Seriously folks ... not going to happen that way.The acting and parts of the mystery were OK for a good while, and then we get to: Attempted murder by HANGING MOOSE MEAT (read with loud ponderous voice).That got my eyes rolling to the point where the rest of the movie was hard to pay attention to.Shooting it out with the bad guy during the middle of a parade, as this ending had it, was a bit hard to take too. This is not a town that was easy to get out of. The guy didn't know yet that he'd been nailed as "the guy". So of course officers would have simply waited until after the parade, keeping him in sight, and quietly arrested him later in his office.I think the sheer volume of movies of this type (and/or novels of this type) mean that writers have to try to push a bit to get something different into their story. That is a fine sentiment, but not when 'what is different' defies any logic whatsoever.This is not a knock on Nora. As I said, my wife devours everything she writes, and my wife is an educated, professional, and intelligent woman ... so the books can't be doing too much of this. The movie sure did, however.

Someone should tell LeAnn Rimes that simply reading the lines with a bitchy attitude doesn't make you an actress. I was never a huge fan of Meg in the novel, but Rimes managed to suck what I did like right from the character.I understand that an adaptation has to change things in the screen version, but is it necessary to strip all the good stuff? I made it through the first half hour of this mess and I had to turn it off. A complete disappointment with none of the atmosphere that sucked me in while reading the book. Eddie Cibrian was fine as Nate, but I missed the setup to the story that had been done in the novel -- with Nate settling in as sheriff that really made the book for me. It was a murder mystery sure, but there were more to it in the book and I missed that in this adaptation.This is just like the 2007 collection that aired -- I could only get myself through one of out of the four movies more than once. They keep taking Nora Roberts and pairing her wonderful novels to barely anything at all. Why does a mediocre guy like Nicholas Sparks get all of his novels on the big screen and Nora gets no special treatment beyond stunt casting?