A cozy novel with a split time/storyline. In 1949, Charlotte becomes Miss Subway while trying to become part of the advertising industry. In present day, Olivia, who is in the ad world, resurrects the Miss Subway and becomes engrossed in the stories of the women involved. With a heavy dose of the-more-things-change-the-more-they-stay-the-same, the timelines mirror one another. Cute, but some of the Charlotte storyline didn’t fully match up for me, and I was, initially more interested in the historical side.

I looked forward to reading this book and enjoyed it immensely. It brought back memories of Mad Men. The dual story lines from different time periods were enjoyable to read and travel back into.
While the story was somewhat generic, it was artistically written enough to keep one engrossed in the book.

I am so happy that Net Galley gave me the opportunity to preview The Subway Girls by Susie Orman Schnall. I am already a huge fan of historical fiction. But if I wasn’t, this book would make me a fan. I loved the dual storyline. The story defined the saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same,”. This was the first book I read by Ms. Schnall but not the last. I highly recommend this book.

I wanted to love this book but in the end I only liked it. I adore historical fiction, especially anything set in the 1940’s or to do with advertising. While the premise is great— two woman struggling to make it in the male dominated world of advertising- the umph just wasn’t there. It turned into a quick read with very little meat on its bones.

Charlotte started out as a character I thought I could really like but instead she spent most of the book being meek and subservient, getting the same advice over and over from others without ever acting on it until someone else submits her photo for her. The abrupt turnaround in her mother’s attitude and later her father’s came out of left field and instead of being a heartfelt mending of fences, the change came off as stiff and predictable.

Olivia also, in the end, is fluffy and predictable. In love with an unavailable man but suddenly— and I do mean suddenly- realizes she’s in love with quiet Ben next door, about whom she knows absolutely nothing except that his grandmother turns out to have been a Miss Subways which was also mighty predictable.

The concept of reviving Miss Subways has a lot of potential but by the time I reached the end of the book, I felt like I had ultimately missed something.

Charlotte dreams of a career in advertising, but it’s 1949, and she has to put her own life on the back burner to help her father with the family business. She finds solace in the beauty pageant world, the Miss Subways, beauty contest, which would get her some fame and recognition, something she could call her own. In present day New York, Olivia is making a last-ditch effort to keep her advertising job and she decides to use the old Miss Subways campaign as a way to save her career. But she doesn’t expect to find herself drawn into the lives of those long ago contestants, or how closely related they might be to her. This was both a charming story of two women striving to make their dreams come true, but also a commentary at how, in many ways, women still have to work twice as hard as men to be thought half as good