Book Review: Going Green

To round off 2020, I decided my last read should be something a little light-hearted and funny. So I’ve opted for Going Green by Nick Spalding.

Book Cover Notes

A laugh-out-loud story about saving your job…and maybe saving the planet in the process.

Meet Ellie Cooke. When it comes to all things environmental she’s, well, a bit ‘green’. It’s not that she doesn’t care about things like climate change and plastic pollution, it’s just that life has always got in the way of that sort of thing.

But when the PR firm Ellie works for is taken over by keen environmentalist Nolan Reece, it’s clear that if she wants to save her job, she’s going to have to get serious about being green—or face being recycled.

Going green is no walk in the park, though. It involves a lot of big changes, tough choices…and at least one case of accidentally showing your knickers off to your boss.

Can Ellie do enough to save her job, and maybe do her bit to help save the planet while she’s at it? And what will Nolan think of her, now that she can’t stop thinking about him…?

My Thoughts

Ellie Cooke works in PR for Stratagem PR. Her boss announces that he’s just sold the business to Nolan Reece, a successful marketing entrepreneur. Nolan wants to rebrand the company to Viridian PR and move into a niche market. “I want to run an ethical PR company that prides itself on its green credentials.” Unfortunately the company finances are tight so there will be a number of redundancies at the end of the week.

Eek! This rings alarm bells for Ellie, who;

• drives a knackered old and very polluting car
• has an addiction to online clothes shopping
• drinks from plastic water bottles
• doesn’t know much about ‘Going Green’

But Ellie loves her job. She needs to find quick ways to ‘fake it’ as a committed environmental activist, whatever that is, she’ll just Google it. Pot plants in the office, that’ll do right? Oh dear…

I really enjoyed Ellie’s character, her desperate attempts to keep her job led her to make impulsive decisions, most of which had disastrous but hilarious consequences.

This is the first Nick Spalding book I’ve read, and I liked his writing style. As well as being a funny read, Going Green is at times thought-provoking. It touches on issues such as the environment, recyclable energy and climate change.

‘We’re going to do what we can to make the world a better place. We’re going to do what we can to stop climate change and the destruction of our planet. None of us are perfect. None of us have all the answers, and very few of us can make massive, sweeping changes to our lives. But we can do what we can.”

Nick has reminded me that we all need to do our bit to reduce our impact on the planet for ‘The Sticky Things’ futures. I shall ramp up my actions in 2021. Starting with a visit to B&Q for pot plants 🙂

Summary

This is the book for you if, like me, you’re in need of a fun, laugh out loud book read during these challenging times.

Strong, likeable characters, with an important underlying message and actionable take-aways for us all.

Where to Buy

Amazon UK

About the Author

Nick Spalding is an author who, try as he might, can’t seem to write anything serious.

Before becoming a full-time author, he worked in the communications industry, mainly in media and marketing. As talking rubbish for a living can get tiresome (for anyone other than a politician), he thought he’d have a crack at writing comedy fiction – with a very agreeable level of success so far, it has to be said. Nick has now sold over two million books – including a million books sales with Amazon Publishing alone. 

Nick lives in the South of England with his lovely (and extremely patient) wife. He’s now in his mid forties – and is rather annoyed at the universe about it, because it gave him no choice in the matter. He’s also addicted to Thai food, still thinks Batman is just about the coolest thing on Earth, and has a dreadful singing voice.

Where to find Nick Spalding Online

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Further Book Info:

• Published Date: 8th December 2020
• Publisher: Lake Union Publishing 
• Page Count: 335

I hope my book review of Going Green by Nick Spalding has been useful. Thanks to Nick Spalding & NetGalley for my digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Take care, stay safe, Merry Christmas

Miche xxx

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