RELEASE BLITZ
Author: TA Moore
Publisher: Rogue Firebird Press
Cover Artist: Tammy Moore
Release Date: May 26, 2026
Tense/POV: Third person, alternating POV
Genres: Contemporary MM Romance/Romantic Comedy
Tropes: Matchmaking, Black Cat/Golden Retriever, Love at First Sight, Second Chance Romance, Found Family
Themes: Love after Loss, Taking the win, even when you don’t think you deserve it, the way people fit
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 50 000 words
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
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Cupid might be free, but Match Made takes direction
Blurb
Cupid has a help desk
Alaskan pilot Quentin Hannigan is good at his job, but not so great with people. He's the last man anyone who knows him would expect to fall in love at first sight. Until he does. Hard.
Just one problem.
Joe Kendrick, widower and frazzled dad of three, does not have the bandwidth for this. Between his kids, his trainwreck of a sister, and bills that keep piling up, the last thing he needs is a too-good-to-be-true, and admittedly very hot, pilot swooping in to play knight in shining armor.
Luckily for the star-crossed couple the world's premier, and only, covert match-making service is on the case. Match-Made's highly trained operatives are ready and willing to engineer a happy-ever-after, one way or another.
They just need Quentin and Joe to co-operate…just once!
Excerpt
“People,” Benjy said, with sullen practicing-teenager import, as he slouched down into his jacket like a tortoise, “are looking.”
Yes.
Joe was aware. He tried to ignore it as he hitched Cody up on his hip and watched his knight in shining armor make room for his backpack in the overhead bin.
“I could do that,” he protested weakly.
The man tucked in a dangling strap and turned to look over his shoulder at Joe. A dark brown eyebrow twitched up over serious, dark brown eyes. “You want me to pull it out so you can do it yourself?” he offered tolerantly.
Yes.
“No,” Joe capitulated with poor grace instead. He raked his fingers through his hair. It needed cutting. It needed brushing. Today had gotten off to a bad start and had not gotten any better. Joe took a breath and scraped together what he could muster of his social graces to try again. “Thank you.”
The man shrugged.
“Least I could do.” He closed the hatch and turned to give Joe a concerned look. “Are you going to be OK? Do you need–”
“No. I’m fine. I’ve got it from here,” Joe cut him off firmly, his hand raised to fend off any offers of help. It was well-meant—and Joe did appreciate that, he did—but he’d reached his limit for people being nice to him today.
Already.
His tolerance was low these days.
If Mr. Shining Knight did or said one more nice thing, Joe was going to either burst into tears or flames. He didn’t know which, but he knew it wouldn’t stop anyone staring at him.
Jessie looked up from her phone. “Can I get a coffee?” she asked slyly. “Milk. Two sugars.”
“You don’t get coffee, you’ll get juice. And that’s when we’ve taken off,” Joe told her firmly and then turned back to Mr. Knight. “Honestly, everything is under control. You can get back to…”
He trailed off as he tried to ‘guess the profession’ based on a crisp white shirt and uncallused hands. Accountant? Lawyer?
He seemed too nice to be a lawyer, but that was probably the last year talking.
Mr. Knight shrugged. “I was just doing a crossword,” he said. “And I was stuck on a three-letter prefix for ear.”
“Oto,” Joe provided the answer without thinking. “O.T.O.”
Mr. Knight looked surprised and a little impressed.
“That would work,” he said. “Thanks. I hate to leave one unfinished.”
The admiration on his face made Joe flush and feel like a fraud. Before he could defend himself against any misapprehensions of being smart, the tannoy system crackled to life.
“We’re sorry for the delay,” a woman’s smooth, alto voice said. The passengers all looked up from their phones and magazines to listen to the announcement. ‘But we should be taking off shortly, as soon as our pilot is ready to go.”
Joe had time to think that was a funny way to put it. Then he realized that everyone’s head had swivelled around to look at him. He was ready to hold up his hands to the delay when he realized they were actually…
…looking at Mr. Knight.
Oh.
Oh, no.
Joe squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he realized just how disruptive his late arrival had been.
“You’re the pilot,” he said as he opened his eyes.
Mr. Shining Knight—or Shining Pilot, Joe supposed, to be accurate—just looked amused. Apparently, from his side of things, it wasn’t absolutely mortifying.
“I told you they wouldn’t leave without us,” he pointed out as he nudged Joe to the side so he could squeeze by. “I should get back to it, though.”
About the Author
TA Moore is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural, seaside town fostered in her a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide.
Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.
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The book kept me turning pages. There's a pleasurable mix of rom‑com contrivance (the MatchMade service) and serious stakes (Joe's grief, money, kids). The banter between Quentin and Joe is engaging. Favorite scenes include the meet‑cute on the tarmac, the dinners, the parental friction. These scenes all hold up the love at first sight chemistry.
Some chapters got a little long-winded and sometimes the MatchMade framing pulled me out of the heart of the story, which is Joe and Quentin's romance. However, the pacing was mostly on target. For instance, the meet‑cute lands early (pun intended--lands, tarmac...), the midpoint shows a deepening of Quentin and Joe's bond, and the dark night of the soul created by the in-laws and custody battles is emotionally powerful.
The pace slows where scenes linger on logistics such as hotel check-ins and itemized bills. There are small repetitive beats which are variations of "he's not my type" that dragged the flow down somewhat.
Overall, however, the story was enjoyable and engaging. I was captivated by the domestic stakes: kids, debts, custody fears. These are the kind of real obstacles I want to see in contemporary romance. The MatchMade concept is fun and fresh, but it should remain a supporting plot device rather than becoming a character in itself, which it sometimes did. This had the affect of overshadowing Quentin and Joe's story line, and they are who the story should be about.
