It might have been a scene from a hit romantic comedy–but actress Ciara Wilde wasn't acting, and nobody was laughing when she skipped town on the eve of her tinsel town wedding. Luckily she's got the keys to the Fortune family ski cabin, and perhaps a chance to regain her sanity. No chance of that when she faces down an intruder in the middle of the night. But Jace Lockhart isn't a thief, just a weary, beaten war reporter crashing his buddy's cabin for some serious alone time after a particularly brutal assignment. Unexpectedly snowbound, the two runaways find the healing they need in each other's arms. But when the snow melts, they awkwardly retreat to their very different lives–a little in love, a little confused and a lot less certain about what they want in life, except perhaps…a chance with each other.

The whole of the magnificent Riftwar Cycle by bestselling author Raymond E. Feist, master of magic and adventure, now available in ebook Kaspar, former Duke of Olasko and once absolute ruler of his nation, has been cast into exile. Abandoned in the wilds of a continent on the other side of the world and left with nothing but his wits and determination, he must fight merely to survive. Armed with guile, cunning and an iron will, he starts his odyssey with a single goal: to return to his home and revenge himself upon the man who cast him down, Talwin Hawkins. But fate has other plans for Kaspar, and as he struggles against adversity, he encounters dangers greater than any he had imagined. More is at stake than he realised and Kaspar is but a single player in a far greater game than he imagined, for pitted against the Conclave of Shadows are the agents of the Dark Empire, a looming menace that threatens not only Kaspar's homeland, but the entire world of Midkemia. Exile’s Return is the third and concluding book in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy.

The whole of the magnificent Riftwar Cycle by bestselling author Raymond E. Feist, master of magic and adventure, now available in ebook For four days and nights Kieli has waited upon the remote mountain peak of Shatana Higo, for the gods to grant him his manhood name. Exhausted and despairing, he is woken by the sharp claws of a rare silver hawk piercing his arm, though later he is not sure if it ever happened. Devastation greets Kieli on his return home. His village is being burned, his people slaughtered. Although it means certain death, Kieli throws himself into the battle… and survives. A distant voice echoes in his mind: Rise Up and be a talon for your people… Now he is Talon of the Silver Hawk, and he must avenge the murder of his people, at whatever cost… Talon of the Silver Hawk is the first book in the Conclave of Shadows trilogy. The second book in the trilogy is King of Foxes.

A biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings. “To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 … by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.” So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil. John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth’s enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generatuion. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day. This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.

This book carries on the tradition of the solo village witch emphasizing white rather than black magic. It is a practical manual of instruction for those who choose the solo path of study and particularly stresses the importance of being in tune with nature. As there are approximately 13 moons each year – the book is divided into 13 parts. Each section is aimed at lasting from the new moon to the dark to make the student fully aware of the changing power in the tides of the sea and the tides of the self. The moon-long sections deal with a variety of traditional arts, skills and mental exercises which enables the aspiring witch to discover the inner world of magic inside him/herself. Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

All is not well at Holm Coultram College. All is not well at Holm Coultram College: lecturers having affairs with students, witches’ sabbaths, a body buried under a statue. Detective Superintendent Dalziel, despite his cynical view of academics, doesn’t feel murder fits in here – let alone a rash of killings. But when he and DS Pascoe are sent to investigate a disinterred corpse at Holm Coultram College, that’s exactly what they find…

Another excellent Dalziel and Pascoe story from the master of the British crime novel Three old men die on a stormy November night: one by deliberate violence, one in a road accident and one by an unknown cause. Inspector Pascoe is called in to investigate the first death, but when the dying words of the accident victim suggest that a drunken Superintendent Dalziel had been behind the wheel, the integrity of the entire Mid-Yorkshire constabulary is called into question. Helped by the bright but wayward DC Seymour, hindered by ‘Maggie’s Moron’, the half-witted Constable Hector, Peter Pascoe enters the twilight and vulnerable world of the senior citizen – to discover that the beckoning darkness at the end of the tunnel holds few comforts.

‘Hill is an instinctive and complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift’ Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday Fifteen years ago they moved everyone out of Dendale. They needed a new reservoir and an old community seemed a cheap price to pay. But four inhabitants of the valley could not be moved, for nobody knew where they were: three little girls who had gone missing, and the prime suspect in their disappearance, Benny Lightfoot. This was Andy Dalziel’s worst case and now he looks set to relive it. Another child goes missing in the next valley, and old fears arise as someone sprays the deadly message on Danby bridge: BENNY’S BACK!

Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them. Delving into the history of the period – charting events including Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul and the Sikh wars – celebrated military historian Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting force.

War-time love story set in Abyssinia, Eritrea and the Yemen 1935-1945. Amedeo Guillet is still alive and living in County Meath, Ireland. Khadija is lost. This is the story of Amedeo Guillet – an Italian calvary officer who was sent out to Abyssinia as part of Mussolini’s army to establish and command a troupe of 2,000 Spahis – or Arabic calvary. He met and fell in love with Khadija – a beautiful Ethiopian Muslim. Together they held up the British lorries heaving up the mountain road to Asmara and blew up the important Ponte Aosta. Eventually captured, Amedeo went on the run disguised as an Arab, eventually making it to Yemen, only to be thrown in jail. This is a rare view of the Second World War from an Italian perpective; particularly valuable are the chapters that tell the story of Italian resistance to the Nazis, and their subsequent withdrawal from Italy in 1943. There are few stories more cinemagraphic than this – Fascist Italy, his early years in Ethiopia commanding the Cossack-like Spahis, the brutal Abyssinian war waged by the Duce, Italian and British colonial rivalry; Amedeo led the last ever cavalry charge the British army faced (Eritrea 1941 – they were massacred by tanks and sub-machine guns), defeat and guerrilla warfare against the British; then flight, disguised as an Arab, imprisonment in the Yemen and a great love lost as he leaves his beloved Khadija behind to face her future alone and returns to Italy, to his fiancée and a career as a distinguished Italian diplomat and Arabist. Amedeo is still alive and living in County Meath, Ireland. Sebastian O’Kelly is a journalist for the Mail and Telegraph and has Amedeo’s full co-operation in writing this book. This is a very valuable and absolutely stunning story, beautifully told by O’Kelly.

The best-selling authors of The Baby Book (Dr William and Martha Sears) have created a supportive and practical guide to coping with difficult and fussy children. The book contains proven methods for dealing with a multitude of difficulties you may encounter. Parents of fussy or difficult children, take heart, best-selling childcare experts William and Martha Sears have written a book just for you. Drawing on more than twenty years of paediatric practice and their experiences with their own high-need children, they provide: - Creative ways to soothe a fussy baby - Information on medical causes of infant fussiness – from infections to food sensitivities - Effective ways of coping with common high-need personality traits and behaviour - Proven strategies for discipline – getting connected to your child early, providing structure, setting limits, knowing when to say yes and when to say no - Tips on learning how to talk and listen - Real-life stories and advice from parents of high-need children In The Fussy Baby Book Dr. William and Martha Sears acknowledge the difficulties you face but show you how responsive parenting can turn these challenges into advantages for both you and your child. The Searses prove that difficult children can provide the most rewarding parenting experiences of all.

A pioneer in the field of fertility, Zita West’s programme is invaluable for couples trying to conceive. Harley Street’s most popular fertility expert, and favourite consultant to celebrity clients, guides the reader through a process of vital physical and mental preparation. The book is for every couple trying to conceive and has fascinating advice taken from Zita’s 20 years of experience as midwife and 7 years as an acupuncturist. It provides a structured, easy-to-follow step-by-step programme, complete with case studies and and enormously detailed questionnaire. The guide includes details on: - when and how often to have sex - what can prevent fertilisation and conception - everything you need to know about sperm and ovulation - nutrition, supplements and herbs - complementary therapies such as acupressure, lymphatic massage and hypnotherapy - how to overcome stress and other emotional blocks to pregnancy - PCOS, endometriosis and other health issues - tests and procedures if there is a problem - and much much more.

The new novel from the bestselling author of THE SIXTH WIFE. When 12-year-old Katherine Howard comes to live in the Duchess of Norfolk's household, poor relation Cat Tilney is deeply suspicious. The two girls couldn't be more different: Cat, watchful and ambitious; Katherine, interested only in clothes and boys. Their companions are in thrall to Katherine, but it's Cat in whom Katherine confides and, despite herself, Cat is drawn to her. Summoned to court at 17, Katherine leaves Cat in the company of her ex-lover, Francis, and the two begin their own, much more serious, love affair. Within months, the king has set aside his Dutch wife Anne for Katherine. The future seems assured for the new queen and her maid-in-waiting, although Cat would feel more confident if Katherine hadn't embarked on an affair with one of the king's favoured attendants, Thomas Culpeper. However, for a blissful year and a half, it seems that Katherine can have everything she wants. But then allegations are made about her girlhood love affairs. Desperately frightened, Katherine recounts a version of events which implicates Francis but which Cat knows to be a lie. With Francis in the Tower, Cat alone knows the whole truth of Queen Katherine Howard – but if she tells, Katherine will die.

This complete self-teaching guide is the perfect handbook for beginners and students alike. It uniquely links Eastern and Western approaches to reflexology and health, making this a comprehensive guide to using the meridians and pressure points of the feet to treat a wide range of ailments. The ebook now includes illustrations. Reflexology, the gentle but highly effective form of therapeutic foot massage, has gained wide acceptance as a powerful, natural healing art. Remarkable results have been achieved with ailments such as back pain, chronic fatigue (ME), digestive problems, eczema, insomnia and migraine. Inge Dougans’s book includes her latest research into the benefits of her unique techniques and is a complete self-teaching guide suitable for beginners and students alike. Bringing together East and West by making clear the close connection between reflexology and Chinese meridian theory, internationally respected reflexologist Inge Dougans shows how the human body has its own internal energy lines – or acupuncture meridians – and reveals how to find and use the reflexology points and associated meridians on the foot to restore the body to its natural balance, prevent ill health and assist relaxation. This comprehensive handbook includes: ? the history of reflexology and the Chinese meridian therapy ? an explanation of how reflexology and the meridian theory work ? illustrated step-by-step reflexology treatments for specific ailments ? treatments of meridian disorders ? case histories.

If only he could stay away… Storm Hunter's return to Whitehorn sent tremors through the town–and shock waves of desire through innocent Jasmine Kincaid Monroe. But then Storm discovered the Monroes might have had something to do with this brother's long-ago disappearance….

HE WAS AN OFFICER…BUT NO GENTLEMAN Once a dashing, decorated test pilot, embittered Major Hollis "Griff" Griffin no longer gave a damn about anything–except fulfilling his late aunt's eccentric last request, then leaving all lingering, loving memories behind. But he'd need help, dammit, from one Rose Davenport–surely a fluttery old antiques addict. Yet Rose proved leggy, delectable and mulishly optimistic about restoring castoffs–even unshaven, arrogant, former flyboys like him. Despite her fear of macho males, she bravely evoked Griff's random acts of tenderness, sentimentally spotting a hero beneath his bitterness. But Griff was no hero. So dare he wheedle this wary, wonderful woman into believing they'd share a bed of roses…forever?

When Lisa Billings swept into Bryce Walker's fire station looking for her missing daughter, he was smitten with the enticing single mother. The handsome firefighter had long ago realized that white picket fences and parent-teacher meetings weren't meant for a man who risked his life on a daily basis. But Lisa and her little girl made him yearn for the dreams he'd put aside…. Bryce was six feet of temptation-in-a-uniform, but Lisa cautioned herself to watch her step. Yet her heart and her soul-and her body-didn't heed her warnings…not when tall, strong and sexy Bryce made her feel like a woman again!

EMMA'S DILEMMA… What would Emma Rogers have done without her oldest friends, the Calamity Janes? As teenagers in Winding River,Wyoming, they'd supported her ambitious dreams. A decade later, when Emma went home, struggling with single motherhood and career pressures as a top Denver attorney, Cassie, Karen, Gina and Lauren rallied around her. But why were the Calamity Janes urging her to look with favor on her sexy nemesis, Ford Hamilton? Wasn't it bad enough that her young daughter sang the praises of the heart-stoppingly handsome publisher who'd clashed repeatedly with Emma on a controversial court case? Worst of all, Emma's own heart was strongly tempted by Ford's offer to match wits–and join hearts–with him for a lifetime!

Become an advanced practitioner with this progressive set of master classes on application-oriented machine learning About This Book ? Comprehensive coverage of key topics in machine learning with an emphasis on both the theoretical and practical aspects ? More than 15 open source Java tools in a wide range of techniques, with code and practical usage. ? More than 10 real-world case studies in machine learning highlighting techniques ranging from data ingestion up to analyzing the results of experiments, all preparing the user for the practical, real-world use of tools and data analysis. Who This Book Is For This book will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in topics in Data Science or those already working in related areas: ideally, intermediate-level data analysts and data scientists with experience in Java. Preferably, you will have experience with the fundamentals of machine learning and now have a desire to explore the area further, are up to grappling with the mathematical complexities of its algorithms, and you wish to learn the complete ins and outs of practical machine learning. What You Will Learn ? Master key Java machine learning libraries, and what kind of problem each can solve, with theory and practical guidance. ? Explore powerful techniques in each major category of machine learning such as classification, clustering, anomaly detection, graph modeling, and text mining. ? Apply machine learning to real-world data with methodologies, processes, applications, and analysis. ? Techniques and experiments developed around the latest specializations in machine learning, such as deep learning, stream data mining, and active and semi-supervised learning. ? Build high-performing, real-time, adaptive predictive models for batch- and stream-based big data learning using the latest tools and methodologies. ? Get a deeper understanding of technologies leading towards a more powerful AI applicable in various domains such as Security, Financial Crime, Internet of Things, social networking, and so on. In Detail Java is one of the main languages used by practicing data scientists; much of the Hadoop ecosystem is Java-based, and it is certainly the language that most production systems in Data Science are written in. If you know Java, Mastering Machine Learning with Java is your next step on the path to becoming an advanced practitioner in Data Science. This book aims to introduce you to an array of advanced techniques in machine learning, including classification, clustering, anomaly detection, stream learning, active learning, semi-supervised learning, probabilistic graph modeling, text mining, deep learning, and big data batch and stream machine learning. Accompanying each chapter are illustrative examples and real-world case studies that show how to apply the newly learned techniques using sound methodologies and the best Java-based tools available today. On completing this book, you will have an understanding of the tools and techniques for building powerful machine learning models to solve data science problems in just about any domain. Style and approach A practical guide to help you explore machine learning—and an array of Java-based tools and frameworks—with the help of practical examples and real-world use cases.

Use scikit-learn to apply machine learning to real-world problems About This Book ? Master popular machine learning models including k-nearest neighbors, random forests, logistic regression, k-means, naive Bayes, and artificial neural networks ? Learn how to build and evaluate performance of efficient models using scikit-learn ? Practical guide to master your basics and learn from real life applications of machine learning Who This Book Is For This book is intended for software engineers who want to understand how common machine learning algorithms work and develop an intuition for how to use them, and for data scientists who want to learn about the scikit-learn API. Familiarity with machine learning fundamentals and Python are helpful, but not required. What You Will Learn ? Review fundamental concepts such as bias and variance ? Extract features from categorical variables, text, and images ? Predict the values of continuous variables using linear regression and K Nearest Neighbors ? Classify documents and images using logistic regression and support vector machines ? Create ensembles of estimators using bagging and boosting techniques ? Discover hidden structures in data using K-Means clustering ? Evaluate the performance of machine learning systems in common tasks In Detail Machine learning is the buzzword bringing computer science and statistics together to build smart and efficient models. Using powerful algorithms and techniques offered by machine learning you can automate any analytical model. This book examines a variety of machine learning models including popular machine learning algorithms such as k-nearest neighbors, logistic regression, naive Bayes, k-means, decision trees, and artificial neural networks. It discusses data preprocessing, hyperparameter optimization, and ensemble methods. You will build systems that classify documents, recognize images, detect ads, and more. You will learn to use scikit-learn’s API to extract features from categorical variables, text and images; evaluate model performance, and develop an intuition for how to improve your model’s performance. By the end of this book, you will master all required concepts of scikit-learn to build efficient models at work to carry out advanced tasks with the practical approach. Style and approach This book is motivated by the belief that you do not understand something until you can describe it simply. Work through toy problems to develop your understanding of the learning algorithms and models, then apply your learnings to real-life problems.

Harness the power of Scala to program Spark and analyze tonnes of data in the blink of an eye! About This Book ? Learn Scala’s sophisticated type system that combines Functional Programming and object-oriented concepts ? Work on a wide array of applications, from simple batch jobs to stream processing and machine learning ? Explore the most common as well as some complex use-cases to perform large-scale data analysis with Spark Who This Book Is For Anyone who wishes to learn how to perform data analysis by harnessing the power of Spark will find this book extremely useful. No knowledge of Spark or Scala is assumed, although prior programming experience (especially with other JVM languages) will be useful to pick up concepts quicker. What You Will Learn ? Understand object-oriented & functional programming concepts of Scala ? In-depth understanding of Scala collection APIs ? Work with RDD and DataFrame to learn Spark’s core abstractions ? Analysing structured and unstructured data using SparkSQL and GraphX ? Scalable and fault-tolerant streaming application development using Spark structured streaming ? Learn machine-learning best practices for classification, regression, dimensionality reduction, and recommendation system to build predictive models with widely used algorithms in Spark MLlib & ML ? Build clustering models to cluster a vast amount of data ? Understand tuning, debugging, and monitoring Spark applications ? Deploy Spark applications on real clusters in Standalone, Mesos, and YARN In Detail Scala has been observing wide adoption over the past few years, especially in the field of data science and analytics. Spark, built on Scala, has gained a lot of recognition and is being used widely in productions. Thus, if you want to leverage the power of Scala and Spark to make sense of big data, this book is for you. The first part introduces you to Scala, helping you understand the object-oriented and functional programming concepts needed for Spark application development. It then moves on to Spark to cover the basic abstractions using RDD and DataFrame. This will help you develop scalable and fault-tolerant streaming applications by analyzing structured and unstructured data using SparkSQL, GraphX, and Spark structured streaming. Finally, the book moves on to some advanced topics, such as monitoring, configuration, debugging, testing, and deployment. You will also learn how to develop Spark applications using SparkR and PySpark APIs, interactive data analytics using Zeppelin, and in-memory data processing with Alluxio. By the end of this book, you will have a thorough understanding of Spark, and you will be able to perform full-stack data analytics with a feel that no amount of data is too big. Style and approach Filled with practical examples and use cases, this book will hot only help you get up and running with Spark, but will also take you farther down the road to becoming a data scientist.