THE OTHER SIDE OF LOVE

Briskin's heroines, tremulously soldiering on in, for instance, Dreams are not Enough (1986) or The Naked Heart (1989), are mega-beautiful, good and true. In fact, the code name of the brave little spy in this tenth romantic outing—which is set in Nazi Germany and involves a tri-national batch of cousins—is ``True Blue.'' Seventeen-year-old Kathe Kingsmith wins a medal for Germany at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (Hitler thanks her ``on behalf of the entire volk''). Meanwhile, Kathe's American cousin Wyatt performs for the US in basketball, and Kathe and half-brother Siegfried also have English cousins—pretty, flirty Araminta and Aubrey. There's a special spark between Kathe and Wyatt that blazes when Wyatt tells her that he's not truly related to her: Wyatt's deceased father, he has learned, was Jewish—an eye-opener for Wyatt, now propelled to a new hatred of the Nazis. As the war begins, Kathe is, on her own, helping Hitler's victims, but then Churchill (who's read cousin Aubrey's first novel) enlists him and Kathe, in Germany, to work for British Intelligence. A good move, it turns out—Kathe'll tap orders for a Russian invasion and rocket-bombing of Britain. In the meantime: Kathe, pregnant by Wyatt, gives birth to Erich; rapist Nazi Otto thinks the boy is his; and there's a passel of family deaths, a cousinly marriage, all kinds of suffering and a search for Erich before Wyatt is shocked out of his unjust hatred of Kathe (misunderstanding and war have separated them)—''the other side of love.'' Not as much glamour-glaze as in previous novels—and no really stylish villains—but, still, Briskin's following is assured. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for July)