Val Sharp

No Commitments: a Novel Val Sharp

Set in the era of the Vietnam War, this is a love story between a young man and woman caught up in the throes of that time. CLAY STONER: Annapolis graduate, navy pilot, born and raised in the Ozarks, he's a fun loving, carefree jet jockey - until he learns he is actually going to have to bomb real people. MARIANNA HAIZET: Daughter of a renowned Swiss banking family, sheltered in boarding schools and trained in voice and piano since the age of five, she is recovering from a shattering experience and has known little joy in life - until she meets Clay. OUR COUPLE meet by chance in Nice during a Bastille Day weekend, and when they part, neither imagines their lives will ever cross again. They are from the two different worlds. But fate intervenes and they do meet again - and connect - and despite repeated vows of NO COMMITMENTS, she becomes immersed in his world of rowdy parties and the tension and torment surrounding young women and their pilots about to go off to war. They stumble into a quixotic love affair that each believes is hopeless, and from that day forward their lives will never be the same. Little do they know that their destiny is to become caught up in an international intrigue that will lead from the South of France, through Switzerland, and all the way back to the Ozarks - or that she will become a singing star - or that as a couple their names will become indelibly linked to one of the greatest scandals of all time. In the beginning, though, the questions are simple...what is love...can ideals triumph in a world of compromise?