The book is described as a "laugh out aloud story" and it certainly does that!

From reading the first word, it felt like I had stepped inside Ellie, the main character's head, "Yes, brain! I like your thinking".

And the way scenes are described well, you (okay, at least me) can imagine seeing them with your own eyes. From panda vs dolphin impressions to fighting with a taco-pinching cockatoo, as well as dealing with an angel and devil on her shoulders, life certainly gets interesting for Ellie, the main character!

I could even relate to some of Ellie's dilemmas, yes, I too, have forgotten my reusable bags from time to time.

The laugh out loud moments, and there were a few, some that you could almost visualise - a bit like watching something happen in slow motion. Some were cliché and stereotypical of life as we know it, like travelling to an important meeting - what could go wrong?!

A light-hearted and funny read that manages to reflect real-life situations of going green.

Thank you to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing for the eARC.

You know what you’re getting with a Spalding novel. A lighthearted read, some big smiles. Never a challenging read, but that’s not why you’re here. And he’s done it again.

This is not a read of the year. But it’s warm and funny and will pass a day - a good, solid novel.

Grace Cooke expects to lose her job when the PR company she works for is sold to Nolan Reece who wants to create an ethical, environmentally green company with clients to match the ethos. Grace sets out to prove she has the necessary credentials.

First of all - Grace, she’s quite something! She thinks on her feet, she’s a blagger, gets herself in a helluva lot of scrapes with often funny and unexpected results that put me in mind on occasions of Bridget Jones! She’s so enthusiastically daft at times you have to love her! The characters are good, there’s a manspreader to sneer at, there’s one to loathe and some to admire and smile with. I like the lively and very engaging way it’s written and in places it’s laugh out loud funny. However, Nick Spaulding makes some very valid point but in an fun accessible way without being preachy. There are some very colourful and lively events that Grace attends and she sure puts her heart and soul into it with results she did not expect at the start. I like the chapter headings and the clever play on names which makes you chuckle. The surprising conclusion is a tad convenient but I still like it!

Overall, a very entertaining but thought provoking read in the company of a character I really like.

With thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for the arc for an honest review.

Going Green by Nick Spalding is a humorous, lighthearted book which tackles the issues facing the world such as climate change.
The book is based around Ellie and her chaotic attempts to "Go Green" in an initial attempt to keep her job. It is an easy read while still tackling a serious topic.
Going Green is not the sort of book I would normally read but I quite enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for my ARC.

This is a very lighthearted book - it follows the same format as previous books by Nick Spalding: the main protagonist suddenly needs to change their ways, and the whole novel is about them struggling to adapt to their new lifestyle, but learning a lesson or two along the way. This is the case here with Ellie Cooke whose new PR employer decides to be environmentally friendly and to run an ethical company - Ellie has to seriously change the way she lives and the causes she believes in if she wants to keep her job.
It is pretty funny and easy to read - took me the afternoon to read it back to back. The writing and the humour felt a bit forced at times - it definitely has its cheesy moments and the jokes can only be called "dad jokes" really. Enjoyable enough though.

An absolutely brilliant humourous read. A tongue in cheek novel covering up the more serious issue of climate change making the reader, without realising it, think of a more environmentally friendly life style. Impulsive Ellie, into consumerism, goes on a journey of 'Going Green' and saving the Planet in order to save her job getting more passionate and involved as she goes along. There are some superbly illustrated characters along the way with some truly eccentric ones plus the situations Ellie impulsively gets herself into are wonderfully depicted. Light hearted read with a serious message to make the reader escape, to take stock, stop rushing about and think what we can all do to in our own small ways to improve life in the long term,.

This is my first of Nick Spaldings novels and I found it very enjoyable. It is a light-hearted book based around the serious topic of climate change and current environmental issues.

In this story we meet Ellie, a girl who is so far from 'Green' she can barely see it in the distance. She drives a fuel guzzling monstrosity which emits noxious gases every once in a while much to the alarm of passers by, spends the majority of her wage on clothes from primark only for them to sit unworn in her wardrobe, drinks from single use plastic, eats as much meat as she can fit on a BBQ and has no idea what is happening in the world around her regarding the plight of the planet. So when the PR firm she works at is taken over by an earnest, environmentally friendly enthusiast intent on rebranding the companies image she knows she has to do something drastic to keep her job!

What ensues is a comedy of errors of extreme proportions as she attempts to prove just how conscious of the environment she is. From joining protests to wearing underwear made out of hemp she does everything she can to prove her worth at the company and show how much she cares for the planet. But is it enough? Will her plan to be more 'green' become more than just a ploy to keep her job?

I did enjoy this book. It was very light hearted and there were many laugh out loud moments, so much so that after one particular outburst , my three year old wanted to know what was so funny. Imagine inappropriately dancing around in some Bridget Jones style pants made of hemp and you have some idea.

At times I did find the writing style a little overwhelming, there was so much detail and description surrounding all of Ellies thoughts that it sometimes came across as frantic. All of her escapades were extremely chaotic and sometimes a bit too cringeworthy, I found myself willing that not all her ventures would turn into such calamities. However the story did wind in a nice direction and there were some unexpected parts along the way, I felt satisfied in her journey by the end of the story.

If you enjoy a laugh out loud, comedy of errors with outlandish characters and a passionate (if not extremely chaotic) leading lady then you will enjoy this book. It is an easy read once you get used to the energetic way it is written and is full of funny, original scenes; from plastic Narwhals to taco eating cockatoos. Overall I am glad I read it and it has reignited my own passion for 'going green'.

Sadly this wasn't my cup of tea. I thought the storyline overall was great and it was unique as a fiction book around the topic of sustainability and ethics but I really didn't get along with the way this was written. The main character Ellie (and her internal monologue) had me cringing the whole way through.

First impression - Ellie is a trainwreck. And she stays that way, but that's her superpower. If you are looking for fun and whimsy twirling with ribbons around a heavy topic like climate change, this book is great fun. If you're more of a take things seriously person, you'll feel like you're trapped in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Super awkward scenarios.
NOTE: The American audience might need clarification - we say "potted plants". You leave off that "-ted" and we are monumentally confused and thinking Ellie is about to encourage the whole office to partake in some other activities. Just saying.

Actual rating 3.5 stars.

The title of the latest offering from Nick Spalding, Going Green is self explanatory. Alighting on a highly debated subject, the environment ,the author explores ways we as individuals can change our habits in a bid to reverse the damage humans have inflicted on the planet. Ellie Cooke is the woman around which this ‘green’ storyline is centred. Most definitely not environmentally conscious, with her single use plastic water bottles and her gas guzzling clapped out Mercedes, she needs a complete change of heart given the publicity company she works for, Strategem is having a change of ownership. Nolan Reece intends to turn this struggling company into a highly successful one that represents environmentally friendly businesses but the only spanner in the works is there will inevitably be job losses. Ellie expects to be a casualty of this streamlining but she’s not going down without a fight! Expect to witness our hapless heroine pulling out all the stops as she assumes the mantle of eco friendly warrior in her concerted bid to impress her new boss. With the author’s tongue in cheek jibes (never malicious!) at vegan loving hippie type characters can these earnest well meaning individuals convert Ellie to their cause?

Nick Spalding delivers another comic tale, with some genuinely funny moments thanks to the chaotic central character Ellie Cooke who is determined to embrace the whole environmentally friendly, climate change,save the planet concept if it means keeping her job at the newly named Viridian PR. I couldn’t help but like this woman who is so desperate to impress her new boss Nolan to the extent she’ll spend a fortune on office pot plants, join a protest march acting like a dying panda, wear hemp underwear and even dress as a plastic bottle! She is on a mission, determined to go green, or go home (minus her job) and the fact Nolan is unconventionally handsome hasn’t passed her by. My favourite incident by far has to be the publicity shoot for bamboo bicycles closely followed by the taco eating cockatoo but the author spoils his readers for choice with escapade after escapade involving comic unfortunate incidents and general mayhem thanks to the eccentric characters Ellie crosses paths with. However there’s only so much silliness I can tolerate before I think enough is enough and this is a storyline that goes into overdrive with disaster after disaster befalling Ellie. It made me want to yell at her to get a grip since her behaviour at her age does strike you as rather immature. This type of character always reminds me of Mr Bean, someone you can laugh at and ridicule but who ultimately can end up being highly irritating. Despite her less than subtle approach to impressing the boss, her attempts often hilariously backfiring, she’s the ideal candidate for listening and taking note of what the environmentalists have to say, thanks also to the clued up informed ‘sticky things’ (schoolchildren) she meets when conducting her market research . Ellie may be far from the environmentally conscious individual she pretends to be at the beginning of this novel but surely all this effort must subconsciously affect her behaviour as change her for the good? As an added bonus it may even win the heart of Nolan, who gives off a possibly too good to be true vibe.

Combining slapstick humour, a smattering of romance and a theme that is highly topical, Going Green is a quick easy read and amusing up to a point. The humour did start to wear thin towards the end although I was slightly but pleasantly surprised by the topsy turvy direction life took for Ellie, Nolan and her Viridian PR colleagues. I think I’d been expecting an entirely different outcome! Whilst this won’t win any prizes in the literature stakes, it is a good piece of escapist fiction which I can recommend if you’re in the mood for some lighthearted hilarity and let’s face it who isn’t?? If it also prompts you to consider your own contribution, or lack of, towards the saving of our planet then the author has achieved more than simply providing the reader with a few belly laughs. My thanks as always to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.

The writing - ⭐⭐⭐
The story - ⭐⭐⭐
Overall - ⭐⭐⭐

I smashed through this in a couple of hours, and it was... Ok. It was easy to read, engaging and there were moments that properly tickled me, but I don't know how much I really enjoyed it overall. The lead Ellie came across as pretty manic all the time and everything she seemed to do just ended up in chaos. Once one thing went wrong, something else would then go wrong and it just kept ramping up, and up, and up, and up...! As a format it quickly became cringeworthy and tired and it didn't make me like her as a character, I kept finding myself thinking 'what now?!' as Ellie found herself in yet another ridiculous situation she kept making worse. You'll have to read it to find out if she sorts it all out in the end!

If you're looking for a quick and easy filler read this is perfect, I reckon it'll be good as a 'palate cleanser' book!

Fave quote - 'Rest assured I will not be using the word synergy again, and I apologise for even bringing it up once. It's one of those buzzwords that make me want to tear every follicle of my hair out, and every time it spills out of my mouth I want to punch myself for it. If I ever utter the word "holistic", you have my permission to hunt me down and do terrible things upon my person'

Fave moment - The bit on the bikes, I genuinely sat chortling my arse off.

The book leads you into a green world via office politics. We meet characters who try to get through life in a modern story based on going green. Their antics are very funny and we are introduced to some very oddball
people.. We find lying and deceit alongside camaraderie and jolly good fun. The green theme runs well throughout the book in many varied locations.
The only downside is some unnecessary swear words. The book is able to stand without rudeness...