Forever his Valentine It may be the most romantic time of the year, but Valentine’s Day just brings up bad memories for Nate Truett. Because on that day six years ago, Ronnie Hartman turned down his marriage proposal and broke his heart. Ever since, he’s been avoiding the holiday and her, completely. Now he’s returned to Arizona, with one last chance to set things right. Ronnie hasn’t forgotten that awful day, or why she turned down Nate’s proposal, but six years is a long time. Seeing how easily the he fits back into her life is…interesting. As he is welcomed with open arms by her family, Ronnie realises one thing. Whatever his reasons for coming back, she can’t avoid him or the past, anymore…

‘A sparkling, laugh-out-loud, romantic read’ Phillipa Ashley, bestselling author of Summer at the Cornish Cafe ‘The perfect holiday read to warm your heart’ #1 Bestselling author Tracy Bloom When the owner of Brides by the Sea, Cornwall’s cutest little wedding shop, offers Lily a job as their new wedding stylist, her first thought is – can she possibly pull it off? Before she’s even sourced a fairy light or tasted a cupcake, Kip Penryn hires her services – but he’s opened an exclusive wedding venue in direct competition to her friend Poppy! Lily feels like a traitor working for Kip, only everyone knows Penryn men are gorgeous but unreliable. All she has to do is sit back and watch him mess it up…doesn’t she? Love is in the Cornish sea breeze this summer as the girls tackle their busiest wedding season yet. There’s plenty of bunting, bubbly and baking – but who is going to catch the bouquet? ‘Funny and big-hearted, I was enchanted by Lily and her friends’ Sunday Times bestselling author Michele Gorman ‘A pure delight…fabulous, fun and unforgettable’ – Debbie Johnson, bestselling author of Christmas at the Comfort Food Cafe

USA Today bestselling author of The Girl Who Lied ‘Gobsmacked…a thrilling finale’ Rachel’s Random Reads Alice: Beautiful, kind, manipulative, liar. Clare: Intelligent, loyal, paranoid, jealous. Clare thinks Alice is a manipulative liar who is trying to steal her life. Alice thinks Clare is jealous of her long-lost return and place in their family. One of them is telling the truth. The other is a maniac. Two sisters. One truth. What people are saying about SISTER SISTER: ‘I would definitely recommend this if you love psychological thrillers’ – Stardust Book Reviews ‘Sister Sister has everything – conflict, family secrets and betrayal, all of which go to make it thoroughly deserving of the five stars I’ve given it’ – Brook Cottage Books ‘A truly absorbing psychological thriller’ – Joan Hill, Reviewing Recommended Reads

He might have the good looks of a modern day Viking, but Dr Brodie McClellan has brooding down to an art. He’s only recently returned to the Isle of Dunregan and already the demons of his past are pushing him to the edge. Running from her own troubled past, this remote posting is heaven-sent for locum Dr Kali O’Shea. And Brodie makes her long to find her true home in Scotland…in her new boss’s arms!

Pregnant with the brooding doctor’s baby… Nurse Savannah Carter is ecstatic to discover she’s expecting, but before she can share the joyful news with the baby’s father—gorgeous Dr Charlie Keele—he stuns her with the announcement he’s leaving town. Charlie knows Savannah deserves better than he can give her, and pushing her away is for her own good, but that doesn’t make leaving any easier. Then he discovers Savannah is pregnant! Now he must win back the woman he loves…and convince her how much he wants to be a family with their beautiful baby.

"I know we were more than just friends." Once Elena Jones shared an intense entanglement with striking Spaniard Caleb Araya, ending with both their hearts in tatters. Now she's a successful entrepreneur, and when he rejects her new business proposition it's clear Caleb hasn't forgotten… Then a sudden accident means that the tycoon remembers nothing about their past! Elena seizes the chance to make things right—she’ll stay in Barcelona and help Caleb recover his memory. But the closer they get, the more Elena realises how much her own heart has never forgotten him… Romantic Getaways Escape to Paradise!

A ranch for the runaway bride Weeks before her wedding, Emily Weber walks away from her planned society shindig and her cheating fiancé—straight to her cousin's New Mexico ranch. Everyone's advice: Emily's got to work it out of her system, and her childhood acquaintance—all six feet of dark good looks—is just the guy to help. Colin Talbot recognises someone on the run from their life. Hell, the rootless photojournalist hasn't been on his ranch in years, till now. But he's not about to indulge in a promise of pleasure, not with a potential for disaster. Emily still wants marriage and babies; he can't wait to bolt. So he'll keep his distance before she has him wanting what he can't have: a family and a forever love.

Will they give into their desire’s this Christmas? Nell Bravo has had her heart broken twice by Declan McGrath; she's not giving him another chance! But Declan has never forgotten her and when they end up married in Vegas, he's determined to make it work. She'll give him until Christmas, but that's it. Will Declan be able to win her heart before December 26th?

A mix-and-match mock engagement? Ballerina Sofia Koslov's career is on the line when she's accosted at the airport by a rich, reckless playboy who thinks she's his mail-order bride! But the playboy's level-headed brother, Quinn McNeill, solves the media snafu with a switcheroo. He'll pretend to be her legitimate fiancé to protect her reputation – and to protect his family's business deals from her father's wrath. Sofia's one condition: they'll share the spotlight as a loving couple but won't share a bed. But soon Quinn's gentlemanly ways strike a chord, and Sofia's dying to renege on that condition and have a real fling…

The Boss's Baby Bargain When resort developer Cameron McNeill goes undercover to root out problems at his prized island property, his first discovery is the irresistible concierge, Maresa Delphine. Her business smarts are vital to his mission. But the struggling single mom could help with his personal mission, too: fulfilling the marriage terms of his grandfather's will. Maresa is overwhelmed caring for her infant niece and tending to the demands of the resort's sexy mystery guest. When he reveals himself as the owner, she's thrown for a loop. But when he proposes…can she resist his brand of trouble in paradise?

Build applications and infrastructures that leverage Function-as-a-Service and Docker About This Book ? Implement containerization in Serverless/FaaS environments ? Utilize Docker as a functional unit of work for Serverless/FaaS platforms ? Use Docker as a portable infrastructure for Serverless Applications Who This Book Is For If you are a Developer, a Docker Engineer, a DevOps Engineer, or any stakeholder interested in learning the use of Docker on Serverless environments then this book is for you. What You Will Learn ? Learn what Serverless and FaaS applications are ? Get acquainted with the architectures of three major serverless systems ? Explore how Docker technologies can help develop Serverless applications ? Create and maintain FaaS infrastructures ? Set up Docker infrastructures to serve as on-premises FaaS infrastructures ? Define functions for Serverless applications with Docker containers In Detail Serverless applications have gained a lot of popularity among developers and are currently the buzzwords in the tech market. Docker and serverless are two terms that go hand-in-hand. This book will start by explaining serverless and Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) concepts, and why they are important. Then, it will introduce the concepts of containerization and how Docker fits into the Serverless ideology. It will explore the architectures and components of three major Docker-based FaaS platforms, how to deploy and how to use their CLI. Then, this book will discuss how to set up and operate a production-grade Docker cluster. We will cover all concepts of FaaS frameworks with practical use cases, followed by deploying and orchestrating these serverless systems using Docker. Finally, we will also explore advanced topics and prototypes for FaaS architectures in the last chapter. By the end of this book, you will be in a position to build and deploy your own FaaS platform using Docker. Style and approach A practical guide that offers a simple way to easily understand Serverless Applications utilizing Docker as the development environment.

Learn the most powerful and primary programming language for writing smart contracts and find out how to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. About This Book ? Get you up and running with Solidity Programming language ? Build Ethereum Smart Contracts with Solidity as your scripting language ? Learn to test and deploy the smart contract to your private Blockchain Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who would like to get started with Solidity Programming for developing an Ethereum smart contract. No prior knowledge of EVM is required. What You Will Learn ? Learn the basics and foundational concepts of Solidity and Ethereum ? Explore the Solidity language and its uniqueness in depth ? Create new accounts and submit transactions to blockchain ? Get to know the complete language in detail to write smart contracts ? Learn about major tools to develop and deploy smart contracts ? Write defensive code using exception handling and error checking ? Understand Truffle basics and the debugging process In Detail Solidity is a contract-oriented language whose syntax is highly influenced by JavaScript, and is designed to compile code for the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Solidity Programming Essentials will be your guide to understanding Solidity programming to build smart contracts for Ethereum and blockchain from ground-up. We begin with a brief run-through of blockchain, Ethereum, and their most important concepts or components. You will learn how to install all the necessary tools to write, test, and debug Solidity contracts on Ethereum. Then, you will explore the layout of a Solidity source file and work with the different data types. The next set of recipes will help you work with operators, control structures, and data structures while building your smart contracts. We take you through function calls, return types, function modifers, and recipes in object-oriented programming with Solidity. Learn all you can on event logging and exception handling, as well as testing and debugging smart contracts. By the end of this book, you will be able to write, deploy, and test smart contracts in Ethereum. This book will bring forth the essence of writing contracts using Solidity and also help you develop Solidity skills in no time. Style and approach Solidity is a high-level programming language best understood using examples. After covering basic concepts of Ethereum and Solidity, programming constructs will be explained with help of examples. As chapters progress, deployment, usage and testing of contacts will form major aspect of the book. Troubleshooting and unit testing is an important exercise and skill to master this language will also be covered in this book.

Building efficient Python applications at minimal cost by adopting serverless architectures About This Book ? Design and set up a data flow between cloud services and custom business logic ? Make your applications efficient and reliable using serverless architecture ? Build and deploy scalable serverless Python APIs Who This Book Is For This book is for Python developers who would like to learn about serverless architecture. Python programming knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Understand how AWS Lambda and Microsoft Azure Functions work and use them to create an application ? Explore various triggers and how to select them, based on the problem statement ? Build deployment packages for Lambda functions ? Master the finer details about building Lambda functions and versioning ? Log and monitor serverless applications ? Learn about security in AWS and Lambda functions ? Scale up serverless applications to handle huge workloads and serverless distributed systems in production ? Understand SAM model deployment in AWS Lambda In Detail Serverless architectures allow you to build and run applications and services without having to manage the infrastructure. Many companies have adopted this architecture to save cost and improve scalability. This book will help you design serverless architectures for your applications with AWS and Python. The book is divided into three modules. The first module explains the fundamentals of serverless architecture and how AWS lambda functions work. In the next module, you will learn to build, release, and deploy your application to production. You will also learn to log and test your application. In the third module, we will take you through advanced topics such as building a serverless API for your application. You will also learn to troubleshoot and monitor your app and master AWS lambda programming concepts with API references. Moving on, you will also learn how to scale up serverless applications and handle distributed serverless systems in production. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with the knowledge required to build scalable and cost-efficient Python applications with a serverless framework. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, using a real-world example to demonstrate building efficient, secure, and scalable serverless applications.

Improve the speed of your code and optimize the performance of your apps About This Book ? Understand the common performance pitfalls and improve your application’s performance ? Get to grips with multi-threaded and asynchronous programming in C# ? Develop highly performant applications on .NET Core using microservice architecture Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET developers looking at improving the speed of their code or simply wanting to take their skills to the next level. Basic C# knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Measure application performance using BenchmarkDotNet ? Explore the techniques to write multithreaded applications ? Leverage TPL and PLinq libraries to perform asynchronous operations ? Get familiar with data structures to write optimized code ? Understand design techniques to increase your application’s performance ? Learn about memory management techniques in .NET Core ? Develop a containerized application based on microservices architecture ? Learn tools and techniques to monitor application performance In Detail While writing an application, performance is paramount. Performance tuning for realworld applications often involves activities geared toward fnding bottlenecks; however, this cannot solve the dreaded problem of slower code. If you want to improve the speed of your code and optimize an application's performance, then this book is for you. C# 7 and .NET Core 2.0 High Performance begins with an introduction to the new features of what?explaining how they help in improving an application's performance. Learn to identify the bottlenecks in writing programs and highlight common performance pitfalls, and learn strategies to detect and resolve these issues early. You will explore multithreading and asynchronous programming with .NET Core and learn the importance and effcient use of data structures. This is followed with memory management techniques and design guidelines to increase an application’s performance. Gradually, the book will show you the importance of microservices architecture for building highly performant applications and implementing resiliency and security in .NET Core. After reading this book, you will learn how to structure and build scalable, optimized, and robust applications in C#7 and .NET. Style and approach This book will be a step by step easy to follow guide with focused examples to increase performance of applications and provide optimization techniques.

Leverage the power of Python and its de facto GUI framework to build highly interactive interfaces About This Book ? The fundamentals of Python and GUI programming with Tkinter. ? Create multiple cross-platform projects by integrating a host of third-party libraries and tools. ? Build beautiful and highly-interactive user interfaces that target multiple devices. Who This Book Is For This book is for beginners to GUI programming who haven’t used Tkinter yet and are eager to start building great-looking and user-friendly GUIs. Prior knowledge of Python programming is expected. What You Will Learn ? Create a scrollable frame via theCanvas widget ? Use the pack geometry manager andFrame widget to control layout ? Learn to choose a data structurefor a game ? Group Tkinter widgets, such asbuttons, canvases, and labels ? Create a highly customizablePython editor ? Design and lay out a chat window In Detail Tkinter is a modular, cross-platform application development toolkit for Python. When developing GUI-rich applications, the most important choices are which programming language(s) and which GUI framework to use. Python and Tkinter prove to be a great combination. This book will get you familiar with Tkinter by having you create fun and interactive projects. These projects have varying degrees of complexity. We'll start with a simple project, where you'll learn the fundamentals of GUI programming and the basics of working with a Tkinter application. After getting the basics right, we'll move on to creating a project of slightly increased complexity, such as a highly customizable Python editor. In the next project, we'll crank up the complexity level to create an instant messaging app. Toward the end, we'll discuss various ways of packaging our applications so that they can be shared and installed on other machines without the user having to learn how to install and run Python programs. Style and approach Step by Step guide with real world examples

本书的撰写目的旨在使日语初学者在较短的时间内快速掌握日语的发音特，掌握3000个日语句子，了解与之相关的日本文化知识，并且能够在日常生活的不同场景中熟练运用本书中所学到的句子行简单的交流。本书由发音门篇和会话篇两大部分组成。*部分为发音门篇，具体包括“前言；*章 五十音图；第二章 拨音、浊音、半浊音；第三章 拗音；第四章 促音、长音；第五章 外来语专用音节和第六章 日语的声调”。第二部分为会话篇，包含150个场景和18个文化小课堂，每个场景里又包含20个句子和1个迷你小对话或补充知识，所以第二部分总共包含3000个句子 18个文化小课堂 145个迷你小对话 5个补充知识。

J.K. Rowling's screenwriting debut is captured in this ebook edition of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them screenplay. When Magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York, he intends his stay to be just a brief stopover. However, when his magical case is misplaced and some of Newt's fantastic beasts escape, it spells trouble for everyone... Inspired by the original Hogwart’s textbook by Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original screenplay marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, author of the beloved and internationally bestselling Harry Potter books. A feat of imagination and featuring a cast of remarkable characters and magical creatures, this is epic adventure-packed storytelling at its very best. Whether an existing fan or new to the wizarding world, this is a perfect addition for any film lover or reader’s bookshelf. The film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them received its theatrical release on 18th November 2016.

There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year.' Harry Potter's summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors - and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone... Dobby's sinister predictions seem to be coming true.

Loongunis need constant changes to thrive, while the strange-haired Earthmen hate the endless moving around. When a sabotage impairs the shift engines of their traveling Box, the forced immobility might drive all Loongunis mad… unless their translator can work out a solution!?? Science fiction adventure at its best, told by multiple award-winning author Michèle Laframboise.?? ?? If you like first-contact situations featuring an alien POV, this one is for you! A chunky 7000-word SF story.?? ? * "The author does a good job narrating from the point of view of an alien who thinks in very different ways from a human." --Tangent Online "...the psychological and mathematical elements of the tale come even more to the fore and they are quite interesting." -- Featured Futures

Can mere clouds threaten their now home?? Blanche, a young paraplegic girl, watches the clouds dancing in the Phoenix sky.? She wonders if their coordinated figures signal a threat. But the adults are too busy to listen, even her big sister Lupianne worries more about the air production’s failing quotas than? some weird clouds. Then, as the dances grow complex and temperatures rise, the sisters must hurry to prevent the annihilation of their budding settlement. A clever planet-opera featuring a disabled heroine, told by multi-award winning author Michèle Laframboise.?The French version of this novel received the 2001 Cecile Gagnon Award for best first YA novel. "We can only be fascinated by the powerful images?born from the descriptions, by the originality?and coherence of her universe (...)"?-- Le Devoir ?An excellent introduction to science fiction?and to a number of questions about the environment,?social relations and communication.? --Hélène Marchetto,?Les vagabonds du rêve

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards (1850 – 1943) was an American writer. She born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a high-profile family. During her life, she wrote over 90 books, including children's, biographies,poetry, and others. A well-known children's poem for which she is noted is theliterary nonsense verse Eletelephony. Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of thePerkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. Samuel Gridley Howe's famous pupil Laura Bridgman was Laura's namesake.Julia Ward Howe, Laura's mother, was famous for writing the words to The Battle Hymn of the Republic. In 1871 Laura married Henry Richards. He would accept a management position in 1876 at his family's paper mill at Gardiner, Maine, where the couple moved with their three children.In 1917 Laura won a Pulitzer Prize for Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910, a biography, which she co-authored with her sister, Maud Howe Elliott. Her children's book Tirra Lirra won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959. A pre-kindergarten to second grade Elementary School in Gardiner, Mainehonors her name. Works:? St. Nicholas Magazine (contributed poetry)? Baby's Rhyme Book (1878)? Babyhood: Rhymes and Stories, Pictures and Silhouettes for Our Little Ones (1878)? Baby's Story Book (1878)? Five Mice in a Mouse Trap (1880)? The Little Tyrant (1880)? Our Baby's Favorite (1881)? Sketches and Scraps (1881)? Baby Ways (1881)? The Joyous Story of Toto (1885)? Beauty and the Beast (retelling, 1886)? Four Feet, Two Feet, and No Feet (1886)? Hop o' My Thumb (retelling, 1886)? Kaspar Kroak's Kaleidoscope (1886)? L.E.R. (privately printed, 1886)? Tell-Tale from Hill and Dale (1886)? Toto's Merry Winter (1887)? Julia Ward Howe Birthday-Book (1889)? In My Nursery (1890)? Captain January (later made into a movie with Shirley Temple, 1891)? Star Bright (Captain January sequel, 1927)? The Hildegarde Series? Queen Hildegarde (1889)? Hildegarde's Holiday (1891)? Hildegarde's Home (1892)? Hildegarde's Neighbors (1895)? Hildegarde's Harvest (1897)? The Melody Series? Melody (1893)? Marie (1894)? Bethsada Pool (1895)? Rosin the Beau (1898)? The Margaret Series? Three Margarets (1897)? Margaret Montfort (1898)? Peggy (1899)? Rita (1900)? Fernley House (1901)? The Merryweathers (1904)? Glimpses of the French Court (1893)? When I Was Your Age (1893)? Narcissa, or the Road to Rome (1894)? Five Minute Stories (1895)? Jim of Hellas, or In Durance Vile (1895)? Nautilus (1895)? Isla Heron (1896)? "Some Say" and Neighbors in Cyrus (1896)? The Social Possibilities of a Country Town (1897)? Love and Rocks (1898)? Chop-Chin and the Golden Dragon (1899)? Quicksilver Sue (1899)? The Golden-Breasted Kootoo (1899)? Sundown Songs (1899)? For Tommy and Other Stories (1900)? Snow-White, or The House in the Wood (1900)? Geoffrey Strong (1901)? Mrs. Tree (1902)? The Hurdy-Gurdy (1902)? More Five Minute Stories (1903)? The Green Satin Gown (1903)? The Tree in the City (1903)? Mrs. Tree's Will (1905)? The Armstrongs (1905)? The Piccolo (1906)? The Silver Crown, Another Book of Fables (1906)? At Gregory's House (1907)? Grandmother, the Story of a Life that Never was Lived (1907)? Ten Ghost Stories (1907)? The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories (1908)? The Wooing of Calvin Parks (1908)? A Happy Little Time (1910)? Up to Calvin's (1910)? On Board the Mary Sands (1911)? Jolly Jingles (1912)? Miss Jimmy (1913)? The Little Master (1913)? Three Minute Stories (1914)? The Pig Brother Play-Book (1915)? Fairy Operettas (1916)? Pippin, a Wandering Flame (1917)? A Daughter of Jehu (1918)? To Arms! Songs of the Great War (1918)? Honor Bright: A Story for Girls (1920)? In Blessed Cyrus (1921)? The Squire (1923)? Acting Charades (1924)? Seven Oriental Operettas (1924)? Honor Bright's New Adventure (1925)? Biographies