There's a difference between being labeled a quitter and using a bit of common sense. Just Once More is a glance into one woman's struggle to balance her responsibilities and discover a life that is all her own. Add in adorable, of the four legged variety and let the cuddling commence. Mia seems to always have a plan, except when she doesn't. As her world is caving in, she finds solace in the arms of a stranger. Jack could be her perfect fit. If he wasn't running away too. What began as two strangers in the night becomes a convoluted mix of misfortune, secrets and pain. A chance at forever could be over before it even begins. Allee starts with a mirage and ends with reality. Love is not always pretty, but can be so worth the fall.

Fills in Vampires vs. Werewolves Square

This is the last book published in the Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series from Entangled Publishing. This was a satisfying end to the series (if it is the end; if not, I will be back for more). I am a little leery about vampires in romance due to consent/ and free will issues, but that issue was handled well in the book.

I liked the heroine (Beatrice, a psychometerist) and hero (Claude - local high ranking vampire) both as individuals and as a couple. The mystery isn't so much a police procedural (like in the other books), but rather finishing a longer, more complicated mystery that the previous books' mysteries were a smaller part of. It really was about going after and bringing the mastermind to justice, rather than his minions on the smaller mysteries. This mystery therefore also had more personal ties to the heroine and hero.

Note that Claude can walk around in daylight hours, so not really in line with traditional vampire mythology. Thankfully, he doesn't sparkle.

Fills in "Read by Candlelight/Flashlight" Square

This was a valley in this series. The heroine (Astrid), a sensitive who is a detective with the Chicago PD, was a wet blanket. She cried a lot and had a fair amount of TSTL moments; however, at other times, she was incredibly smart cop. The hero (Mason) was a lycan working with the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency. They teamed up to find a killer(s) of a vampire/succubus couple.

The romance would have been stronger if the history the hero and heroine shared was a little more fleshed out beyond one kiss two years ago. The mystery was a complete snooze and I named the killers as soon as each made their first appearance in the book. I do think they made a good couple, just wasn't up to the standard the author set from the first two books in the series.

Fills in the Scary Women Authors square for Halloween Bingo.

This is book #2 in the Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series from Entangled. The main couple in this in this installment is Marisol (friend of the heroine from the last book) who is a succubus and a detective with the Chicago PD and Valerio Costa who is an agent with the OEA and a salamander. They are on a quest to find Marisol's sister and find the person(s) responsible for kidnapping young succubi and selling them as sex slaves.

I loved the mystery and the chemistry between the two leads. Tiffany Allee really knows how to balance plot and characters. I did figure out pretty early who the villain was, but it was fun to go through the process of finding and bringing said villain to justice. Although the page count is low (132 pages), the writing is tight and there is no filler. The only problem is the formatting - there needs to be more of a page break between scenes in the same chapter. 4 stars.

We have a four day holiday weekend and I intend to start on Halloween Bingo reading on Sept 1st. Rather than do individual reading lists for September and October that are nothing but re-treads of my bingo reading list that I already made, I am just going to pop in and say what I am reading at certain intervals. Here is my list for the holiday weekend:

1. Final Catcall by Sofie Kelly (Black Cat Square)

    I found this cozy mystery on OverDrive. First time reading on my Kindle.

2. Eternity in Death (....In Death #24.5) by J.D. Robb (Free Space Square)

    From the anthology Dead of Night. Not interested in any of the other stories, just missing Eve, Roarke, and the gang in my reading life. I have a bunch of ...In Death novellas to catch up on and lucky me, some fit within other squares.

3. The Graveyard (Graphic Novel Edition) by Neil Gaiman (Grave/Graveyard Square)

    My husband keeps poking me to read Gaiman and I figured a graphic novel was a faster way of seeing if I liked his writing than reading a novel. I picked a print edition from my base library.

4. Succubus Lost (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency #2) by Tiffany Allee (Read by Candlelight/Flashlight Square)

     Going to read by candlelight (Spice Pumpkin from Yankee Candle). Does the guy on the cover look like that actor that played the politician on the original Heroes show?

5. Lycan Unleashed (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency #3) by Tiffany Allee (Scary Women Authors Square) - I love werewolf shifters, especially for heroes.

6. Vampire Games (Files from the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency #4) by Tiffany Allee (Vampires vs. Werewolves Square) - This is the last one I have on my NOOK and according to FictFact.com, it is the last one in the series currently published.