Honor. Love. Tragedy Cursed to Survive is a historical novel set in Germany at the beginning of Hitler’s Reich. We witness the often-horrific events through the eyes of Maximilian Count von Bittenburg, a German nobleman and the gatekeeper to a dark and secret past. Rose Blackford Stern encounters the stunningly handsome Max at the grave of her late grandmother. Max is enigmatic and the subject of Rose’s obsession from the moment they meet. Rose is a young, beautiful and successful New York City fashion consultant. She has everything, yet she is unable to shake the emptiness that has consumed her since the death of her beloved grandmother, Aliza, three years prior. Max first meets Aliza when she is a teenage girl in pre-World War II Germany. Max comes from one of the oldest and wealthiest noble families of Europe. The attraction between Maximillian and Aliza is instant and overpowering, albeit impossible -- a German aristocrat could never be with a Jewish commoner. As the Nazi movement gains momentum, their country is shattered and their deep mutual connection becomes deadly. Aliza loses her entire family and lives through horror and abuse before Max infiltrates the Third Reich and rescues her. Nearly seventy years later Max’s unusual gifts have brought him to New York, to Aliza’s granddaughter Rose, and perhaps to another chance at love.