Lauren, Revisited: Before Eddie Grant went to war
Lauren Adams and Eddie believed that love could be enough. She was wrong.
Before Eddie Grant Became Who He Is
Before he was a soldier.
Before Paris became contested ground again.
Before wealth, secrets, and violence rearranged his life—
there was Lauren.
When I first published Lauren, I thought of it as a prelude: a short piece written to sketch the man Eddie Grant had been before the series truly began. Over time, though, it became clear that I’d underestimated what the story was really doing.
Eddie is not a tourist in Paris. His mother is French. He grew up there, went to school there, learned the city as a native. His father, Artie Grant—an American intelligence officer who had worked behind German lines during the war—was still alive during the events of Lauren, quietly building a business that Eddie expected to inherit one day.
College in Texas. Military service. Then a return to Paris.
That was the plan.
Lauren takes place in a narrow, fragile moment before history intervenes—before duty hardens into habit, before violence reshapes intention. It’s a story about love, yes, but also about identity: about a young man who belongs to two countries and thinks he understands the cost of both.
This revisited edition isn’t a rewrite so much as a restoration. The story itself hasn’t changed, but the pacing is tighter, the emotional through-line clearer, and the connections to the later novels more deliberate. Knowing where Eddie eventually goes made it possible to see more clearly where he began.
If you’ve read the Eddie Grant novels, Lauren reveals the fault lines that were already present.
If you haven’t, this is the right place to start.
👉 I’m making Lauren available free for a limited time as a lead-in to the series. No funnel tricks. No cliffhangers. Just the story, as it should have been from the beginning.
Or, if you live entirely in the Amazon universe, you’ll find Kindle, paperback, and audio editions there as well. They aren’t free, but they are deeply discounted for this promotion.
Next week, I’ll be turning attention back to The Final Heist, the most recent novel in the series, and inviting early readers to help it find its footing with reviews. If Lauren resonates with you, you’ll understand exactly why that book exists.
As always, thank you for reading—and for staying with these stories as they continue to evolve.
— John Pearce
Washington, DC
