In Schnall’s latest novel, she creates a dual-timeline tale that focuses on a small slice of New York City history, the Miss Subways competition that took place from the early 1940’s through the mid-1970’s. In 1949, Charlotte wants a career in advertising, but she is hampered by her father’s insistence that she help with the family’s business. She enters the Miss Subways competition in hopes of helping the family business which would then allow her to pursue advertising. In 2018, Olivia stumbles across the historic Miss Subways campaign when she is tasked with creating a new pitch for the MTA (New York’s subway system). Intrigued with the concept, Olivia delves into the historic competition hoping that she can use some components of it for her current proposal. As the story progresses, the two tales slowly intertwine as the women struggle to balance their careers, love and family.

My favorite part of the book was the Miss Subways campaign. We visit New York City regularly and frequently ride the subways when there. I was unfamiliar with this competition and loved learning about its origin, its impact on the subway system, and the women who served as Miss Subways. Schnall’s Acknowledgments section at the end of the book provides additional in-depth details on how she discovered the competition and the research she subsequently conducted.

The Subway Girls is a fun read that provides a fascinating glimpse into a bygone era of New York City. I received this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

The Subway Girls were real! Over 200 women were chosen as “Miss Subways” from 1941 to 1976 in New York, with their posters placed in every subway car running in all five boroughs. Although it all started as an ad campaign and a bit of a beauty contest, it launched some of its winners to new careers and endeavors.
With this historical foundation, our novel takes the reader back to 1949 and the challenges of life for one of the Miss Subway winners, Charlotte. The chapters alternate this time travel with present day Olivia, almost her counterpart in 2018, who works in a small advertising firm in Manhattan. Their paths will eventually converge in the most unusual but magnificent way; with many twists and turns and other delightful characters.
We get to compare the lives and times of both women, separated by almost 70 years, but discover that family is still our most important treasure regardless of the decade.
Susie Orman Schnall first got her idea for this book when hearing the topic discussed on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” (‘She nearly had to pull her car over,’ she said. Sound familiar?) She then found the book, “Meet Miss Subways” by Fiona Gardner and Amy Zimmer during her research. The book showcases forty-one past winners with photos and interviews. Susie includes information on this and more in her book as well.
I highly recommend you travel with us on the subways of NY, past and present, through the Subway Girls who bring it all to life.

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Susie Orman Schnall

Very well written and interesting. Not much written about ad women so there was the freshness of that. I enjoyed the back and forth. All very well done.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: I have a material connection because I received a review copy for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Charlotte is clever, bright and educated. She longs to work in Marketing. Even though she is about to graduate from college, she can’t get a job at any of the firms she has applied to. It isn’t that she wants to start at the top; as a matter of fact she is willing to start in the typing pool and work her way up. This is a long shot for a young woman in 1949. To add more misery to her world, her father’s hardware store isn’t doing well, so he wants her to work for him instead of getting a job that actually pays so he can fire his last employee.

Her age is another deterrent. No one wants to hire someone as old as twenty-one. It is almost a certainty that she is just waiting to get engaged, married and immediately after resign to take care of her husband, home and however many children they have in quick succession. Charlotte wants more from life, including a career at a marketing firm.

Olivia lives in a world where women can hold almost any job that a man can. They may not get equal pay, but in 2018 women are much more likely to be taken seriously. It appears to be true, but when Olivia’s job becomes a contest between the other manager at her marketing firm and her, only one of them will still be employed when all is said and done. It doesn’t seem to matter that she has brilliant ideas; the “good old boy” network is alive and well. Unfortunately, her competition will do anything to have the best campaign for the New York Subway system. To boost their ridership, the NY Subway needs something new with a twist of retro and even though Olivia comes up with great ideas, will she be heard?

Meantime, back in 1949, Charlotte has personal and professional issues. She wins a contest to be a Subway Girl that she entered on a whim. They are New York gals that are smart and pretty. Charlotte cleverly thinks if she can mention her father’s store during the campaign it will be on all of the subway cars, therefore free marketing so she won’t have to work in the family business and can further pursue her dream.

Olivia reads about the Subway Girls and feels it is a great idea that would stand up today. It will be retro with a new spin, landing right where the client wants it to be. After doing her research, she even locates a few of the gals who posed for the Subway Girl posters fifty years ago.

Susie Orman Schnall does a marvelous job melding 1949 with 2018. So much is different, and yet, so much is the same. She cleverly alternates chapters between Charlotte and Olivia, taking the reader seamlessly from one story to the other until they blend beautifully in the last few chapters. The struggles each girl experiences in her personal and professional life are universal through time.

The Subway Girls is a fast paced, interesting novel. The characters are well developed and the plot line is interesting and complex. Often times women’s fiction has too much romance and whining involved for me, which is definitely not the case with this fantastic book. There was a subplot of romance, but not to the extent of overtaking the story. This novel is just the right amount of everything. I loved it.

Copyright © 2018 Laura Hartman

Interesting to compare the lives of 2 women who are 60 years apart, but in similar circumstances. Both in NYC, in advertising, trying to balance career and family life. While some things change, much stays the same. 3.6 stars

The Subway Girls is written from two different perspectives - it switches between modern day and the 1940's. Charlotte is a young college student in the 1940's who is working hard to achieve her independence and a career in a time when women were rarely in those roles. Olivia is a modern day ad executive who is dealing with her own issues of chauvinism in her office and career as she works to attain her own success as well. It's easy to follow as it switches back and forth between Charlotte in the 1940's and Olivia in present times - reflecting on the challenges of the roles of women in both times. Each main character is likable and engaging as we follow their stories and wait to see how/if they will intertwine. There were even a couple of twists and turns along the way.

I enjoyed learning about the Miss Subways contest from the 1940's and was interested to find out that it was a real promotion. I thought the male characters of then and now were represented accurately and they had a good part in the plots. There were some moments that seemed a little far-fetched and contrived, but I actually didn't mind those. I am a sucker for a happy-ending and like when things are neatly wrapped up. The ending of this book was quite satisfying from that perspective.

Two women, one in 1949 the other in 2018. Both ambitious, Charlotte in 1949 trying to desperately get a position as a typist in an advertising agency, Olivia in 2018 working in a boutique advertising agency pitching an ad campaign for the New York subway system. In 1949 Charlotte surprisingly becomes a finalist as Miss Subway for the month of July, while Olivia in her research comes upon the Miss Subway campaign set up by J. Walter Thompson one of New York's largest advertising agency.



The story is told in alternating chapters the women in alternating lives, yet similar in their ambitions. This novel brings me back to my childhood years as I remember these posters. For me this book was nostalgic as I could see the New York of my youth. This novel was an easy read, enjoyable and one I would highly recommend. My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this story! I never knew about Miss Subways but was thrilled to learn about them. The story neatly wove together the 1940s and current times. It was a joy to see how Charlotte's life turned out. This book made me smile throughout and I would gladly recommend it to others.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. The story revolves around an historical Subway Girls campaign, a NYC campaign roughly 70+ years ago that promoted attractive and interesting young women in advertising posters on the subway. Each poster included a blurb that described the woman's interests and what her plans were. The story alternates between Charlotte, a young woman in the late 40's that is selected as a Subway Girl -- and Olivia, a young woman that now works in advertising in 2018.

In the end, I felt like I missed the book's arc -- were Charlotte and Olivia meant to be comparisons of progress in the past 70 years? If so, it was hard to draw them - Charlotte wrestled greatly with family expectations, while Olivia didn't really think about tension between career and family. Ben was sort of a Prince Charming with money and plane tickets and his busy career didn't present any conflict with hers.

Another comparison was autonomy. With the Subway Girls campaign, the girls had a short bio with their picture, but they didn't control their own narrative. Does Olivia control her narrative any better? She's bolder, and maybe allowed to be more competitive, but I'm not sure she was really in charge of her narrative, either.

However, the topic is interesting and the book is an easy read.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this novel for my honest and unbiased review.

I love a good dual narrative timeline, and this novel was no exception. One story is of Charlotte, a woman ahead of her time whose dream is to be an advertising executive, and to live the Manhattan style. The other similar narrator is Olivia, a modern-day advertising executive. The problems Charlotte faced in business were obviously more monumental, given the time, but it wasn't shocking as a woman to read all about the bias that existed then and now. They fortuitously come together via an ad campaign called The Subways Girls (a real thing, worth the wiki search). Charlotte was a Subways Girl in 1949, and Olivia is pitching a new campaign to the MTA, and they just happen to be neighbors.

The only story line that I found to be unbelievable, and made me a little angry, is how quickly Charlotte was willing to forgive and forget how awful her parents treated her. That was sort of glossed over to get a happy ending.

Although written around an interesting premise, with two seemingly different women separated by time learning from each other's mistakes and memories, I found Subway Girls lacking. It tried too hard to be a Fiona Davis novel, and had trouble finding its own voice.

A light read of two women from different time periods whose stories entwine. The interesting history about subway girls in the mid-1900s was its main appeal. The plot was based on a rather unlikely coincidence but the alternate chapters each from the point of view of one of the two women worked quite well. Mostly enjoyable if not riveting...

This was my first book by this author. Susie Orman Schall intertwines contemporary and historical settings/stories in such a flawless way. She writes a very interesting novel. The first character of our story is 21 year old Charlotte Friedman. The time period is 1949. The place New York and the plot is about the Miss Subways beauty contest.
Seventy years later, our second heroine is Olivia. The time period is 2018, and our character is a head strong advertising executive.
I found it interesting that these two strong determined women, although so far apart in time periods, faced a lot of the same issues. They were two women pursuing their dreams and looking for true happiness.
This was a story that kept me guessing until the end. Then left me wanting more.
I received a copy of this book from St. Martin's Griffin Publishers through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Read The Subway Girls. I cannot say much more than this: It is really really well done with great character and setting descriptions. So so good...

I love books that go back and forth in time. That's one reason I enjoyed The Subway Girls, by Susie Orman Schnall. Charlotte wanted a career but her father wanted her to help in the family paint store for financial reasons. Charlotte had no choice but to obey her father although her heart was broken. She never lost her dream to work in an advertising agency, and then to marry Sam, her childhood sweetheart. But things don't always work out the way we expect, and Charlotte winds up involved with the "Miss Subways" contest, which changes her life.. I don't want to give too much away, but I really liked the way the author created the characters, the good and the not-so-good, and brought them all together for a grand finish. Note: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm sorry to say that the style of this book just didn't grab me. I made it partway through and didn't finish it. I'm disappointed because this type of story usually interests me very much.

Loved loved LOVED this book!!! Life sure has a funny way of coming full circle, and this book is on point with it. The story is so engaging and thought out.

Very interesting characters and well developed story. The author was able to skillfully move back and forth between the two main characters and the different decades. Enjoyed all aspects of the juxtaposition of post World War II New York with New York in 2018. Eminently readable as the characters are so well drawn and remain true throughout the novel.

I love these type of stories,, the book was enjoyable , I hope to get to read more books like this one,

If you are looking forward to warmer days and summer reading lists, keep Subway Girls on your beach read watchlist. The book is scheduled to debut in early July, and is sure to become a summer hit. Eager to get in the summer mood, I was able to snag an advanced copy of the book and infuse some summer vides into my days.

Set in New York City a generation apart, Susan Orman Schnall crafts a story that is heartfelt and spunky. Schnall’s dual protagonists, Charlotte and Olivia, live roughly seventy years apart; yet, struggle to find the same personal and professional success in the grueling world of New York City advertising. Both timely and relevant, Schnall’s Subway Girls paints an all too realistic portrait of young women, struggling to succeed in a male dominated world. As the novel moves back-and-forth between the 1940s and present day, the parallels between Charlotte and Olivia’s lives are unmistakable.

Infused with wonderful historical trivia, Subway Girls not only offers a thoughtful look at two women’s lives, but brings to light a long forgotten New York City pastime. It is no mistake that while both characters struggle to make it in the world of advertising, Charlotte is accepted into the Miss Subway Pageant, the winner of which would her picture printed on posters and hung up on various New York City subway trains. A commentary on women’s equality in the workplace and women’s roles within present society, Subway Girls explores sexism and gender profiling within its two stories; illustrating the advances women have made, and the struggles they still face.

If you are a fan Schall’s previous novels, The Balance Project and On Grace, Subway Girls will not disappoint. Schanll’s newest work continues to build meaningful relationships between characters, while exploring thoughtful personal exploration. The book is a page turner, as you are increasingly drawn into the lives of Schnall’s two protagonists. While the book is simply constructed, Schnall’s story is engaging; light at times, but with serious issues at its heart.