YOU can't beat popping a bit of chick-lit in your beach bag to wile away the long hours on the beach this summer. Here are two such books which are well worth a read.

Addressing the upheaval that relocating can cause, Goodbye, Jimmy Choo deals with moving from the city to the countryside, while True Colours follows the move a family is forced to make from the rural north to London when their home is put under threat.

In many ways the two books are similar. The major characters in both are reluctant to move. Izzie and Maddy in Goodbye, Jimmy Choo are an unlikely couple, thrown together both because both have one thing in common - London sensibilities, and the feeling of being outsiders in the insular 'ladies who lunch' circle into which they have been flung.

Beth and her family in True Colours, meanwhile, are forced to move when their home is threatened by the eroding coastline and they are offered the opportunity of living with their prospective MP in London when they have nowhere else to go.

From the start in Goodbye, Jimmy Choo, the pace is fast as tragedy strikes, forcing Maddy and Izzie to take things into their own hands after Maddy comes across a book of recipes for natural skin products written by one of her ancestors, and the duo set out on a venture which will change their lives.

The pace is slower in True Colours, but once the family move to London the plot thickens and it becomes harder to put the book down - especially after a local journalist in Northlands starts to investigate prospective MP Gareth Dakers' motives for moving the family away from their lighthouse.

The characters in Goodbye, Jimmy Choo are easier to relate to as the plot is more plausible; in True Colours, you need to suspend your disbelief to swallow the notion that a prospective MP would move constituents into his home to win votes.

However, both stories have a smattering of essential chick-lit ingredients: the strength of families and friendship; the difficulties involved in relocating from the city to the countryside and vice versa; the excitement of starting new careers; bitchiness; good looking men; strong, sexy women; tragedy; humour; and sex.

Updated: 08:24 Wednesday, May 26, 2004