The What I Thought Series
Every book in the series begins the same way.
With a belief most of us inherited before we were old enough to question it. About love. About loss. About what we owe the people around us and what we are allowed to want for ourselves.
Each title takes that belief and holds it gently up to the light. Not to prescribe answers. Not to offer formulas or promises of transformation. But to create enough space for readers to recognize their own experience and discover a new way of seeing it.
This is the work of Jesse Sloane Studio.
Some beliefs arrive quietly.
Be useful. Be agreeable. Be less than you really were. Need less. Carry more. Hold it together.
Most of us never question them. We simply build our lives around them and call it love.
What I Thought Love Required moves through childhood, marriage, heartbreak, parenthood, ambition, and the quiet moments in between — tracing the patterns inherited before they could be questioned and the long, unglamorous process of learning to see them differently.
This is not a book about finding love.
It is an honest look at what it costs to earn something that was never supposed to be earned and what becomes possible when you finally stop.
"Like talking to a friend who admits they don't have it all figured out."
Readers' Favorite ★★★★★
"For one of the first times, I felt seen."
Readers' Favorite ★★★★★
"A very human, life-affirming perspective on finding real inner clarity and choosing peace after forty."
Readers' Favorite ★★★★★
Available September 1, 2026
Book 1 · The What I Thought Series
Most people think loss begins with goodbye.
A phone call. A funeral. A packed suitcase. A final breath.
But loss has been shaping us long before we recognize its name. Sometimes it arrives as a move. A friendship that quietly ends. A dream that slips out of reach. A version of yourself you thought you left behind.
Sometimes nothing has ended at all. Something has simply changed.
What I Thought Loss Meant moves through childhood goodbyes, fractured friendships, professional collapse, and the losses that arrive without funerals — tracing the quiet ways loss has shaped a life and what was found waiting on the other side of each one.
This is not a book about getting over loss. There is no finish line here and no timeline for grief.
It is an honest look at what loss actually leaves behind and the possibility that what you have been carrying isn't only grief.
It might also be love.
"I can't promise grief becomes smaller. For me, it didn't. It became different."
Jesse Sloane
"Sometimes the loneliest part of grief isn't the loss. It's carrying something nobody else can see."
Jesse Sloane
Available December 2026
Book 2 · The What I Thought Series