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Paternal Instincts

Valor and Doyle, Book 8

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Paternal Instincts

By: Nicky James
Narrated by: Nick J. Russo
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About this listen

At the heart of a missing child case, Quaid and Aslan learn the true nature of fatherhood. With their baby due any day, Quaid ends up tangled in a case on the last day of work before his parental leave begins. Between eerie ransom notes and family secrets, unanswered questions pile up, twisting the case into something Quaid has never seen. Someone is lying. Someone knows more than they’re saying.

With the help of supportive friends and colleagues, Quaid and Aslan are determined to solve the case before it’s too late. When their surrogate goes into labor, Quaid struggles to let go and walk away. A boy has vanished. A life is in danger.

©2025 Nicky James (P)2025 Nicky James Contemporary Mystery Police Procedurals Romance
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Dets Quaid Valor and Aslan Doyle are eagerly looking forward to six months of paternity leave. The surrogate is close to giving birth and the guys plan to be in the birthing suite when it happens. Unfortunately, a distraught father contacts the MPU about his 10-yo son who has been missing for three days. Quaid’s replacement won’t start for a few days and his cop partner, Jordan, is too new to the role to handle this alone. Just when they should be winding down, Quaid is immersed in the incredibly frustrating case: the parents’ families hate each other, insist on interfering, and withhold so much important information that it’s a wonder Quaid and Jordan can make any progress. Aslan offers to help but it’s a race against time before the birth of their child and with each hour ticking by, hope of finding the missing boy fades.

I really appreciated the author’s sobering postscript about how hard it was to write this book—it was a brilliant series finale, such a tour de force! The contrast between the panicked, embittered families of the missing child and the hopeful joy surrounding Quaid and Aslan’s new arrival was stark and the balance between the two storylines was perfect. The highly strung Quaid throws himself heart and soul into finding the boy and those around him support him to do what he does best. I loved the gentle bickering over baby names, Quaid’s obsessive reading of every pregnancy book available, and the heartwarming final scene showcasing Quaid and Aslan’s families. 🎧 Nick J Russo always performs well and he really channels the high emotion and big-hearted scenes here. He’s done a great job on this series.

Treasured pregnancy contrasts with a kidnapping!

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This was okay. I know people will love the whole family thing but I’m not into babies in my romance or fictional reading/listening but apparently a lot of people on the author’s page/group were.
I truly think Aslan is a wonderful character but he really subjugated himself a lot to Quaid in this book because Quaid gets ticked off and anxious.
I felt for Quaid throughout the series but this time he was mostly overbearing.
It was an okay read overall. The missing persons case was okay. The overall story was okay. The ending was okay.

Okay End of a Solid Series

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