Do soulmates have an expiration date? We welcome back Tia Williams to discuss this burning question presented by her new novel, Seven Days in June -- a witty, romantic, and sexy-as-hell story of two writers and their second chance at love.** We start by discussing Eva, who is strong, but also struggling to keep it all together. She underestimates herself, but also overextends herself so that she doesn’t have the capacity to go deep into those places that scare her, like love, and like her family history. Turns out Tia didn’t have to look too far beyond her own life for inspiration. Eva is not your quirky heroine -- she’s got real pain, trauma and a bury past -- and we love her darker layers!  (03:00)** We read an amazing passage from the novel that gets us talking about the idea that women, when we embrace our contradictions and our pain, we can use that as a way to fight back. Tia talks about the double-standards between men and women -- how women don’t get to be bad boys. (07:16)** We love a one-that-got-away story so we discussed what drew Tia to this concept of second chances (hint it has something to do with Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet starring Leo and Claire!). (10:35)** Listen to hear how the one that really got away is Eva. Shane is a conduit, helping her unlock her true self and force her to reckon with her past, but this is really about how the one Eva was missing and needed to meet again is herself. We love that! (13:35) ** In talking about how Shane SEES Eva with a capital “S”, Carinn realizes that the flipside of that is how the good stuff comes in the scenes where Eva SHOWS her messy vulnerable side to him with a capital “S”! We all spend so much time trying to hide our vulnerabilities, to pretend they don’t even exist, but we loved discussing how as women we are all masters of this. (17:32)** This book is HOT. It’s sexy and steamy and delicious -- the perfect balm for the new post-pandemic world. We chat with Tia about how Eva is not the only one shedding her skin right now and the timeliness of her novel.  (23:12).** There is a scene in the novel where Eva is on a panel of other black writers and it is a master class in building escalation. The panel talks about the dominance of Black tropes, black suffering being more marketable than black joy, and the void of black characters in fantasy or paranormal stories. It’s so on point and so good on so many levels -- we loved hearing how easy it was for Tia to write. (25:46)** There are a lot of references to astrology in this book and since we’ve already talked all things fire signs with Tia on our prior interview we decided to share a little bit about her real life romantic connection with her husband based on their signs. Tia then blew our minds with an amazing story about a Leo necklace that her husband gave to her. (30:56).** This is a hot love story, but we were equally impressed with the multi-generational complexity of mothers and daughters layered into this book. Tia shares why she is so drawn to stories about families. (35:47)** Tia updates us on the upcoming Netflix adaptation of The Perfect Find with Gabrielle Union. (41:33)** Tia is a pop culture junkie, so we have to ask her if there is anything she is currently obsessing over. Listen for her suggestions. (42:33)Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @popfictionwomen and on Twitter @pop_women. To do a full deep dive, check out our website at www.popfictionwomen.com. Stay Complicated!We’ve launched a platform at patreon.com/popfictionwomen to keep making the podcast you love -- and to make it even better. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.