Fast Fiction Paranormal - quick reads to transport you to another world Erika Cenov has dreams where someone dies - and then it comes true. Her latest nightmare has a young girl being abducted and the man she once loved, Lazlo Brennan, being shot and turning into a wolf. Erika doesn't want to believe her vision. Then a child goes missing and the detective on the case is Lazlo Brennan. Erika knows Lazlo will die. Unless, for the first time, she can change the outcome of her dreams…and save them all.

LUCKY CHARM SISTERS KATE MAGGIE SUSAN DESPERATELY SEEKING CINDERELLA… Susan Greenwood had expected a tip, not an offer of marriage! But how could the down-on-her-luck beauty resist when rich-as-a-prince Zach Lowery proposed to her in the middle of the Lucky Charm Diner? Then she got her answer–it was just a role she had to play to soothe Zach's dying grandfather. But Zach never expected his pretend wife to tie him in knots with her selfless gestures and warm embraces. And soon this cynical rancher found himself trying to find a way to make a real future…a real family…with his Cinderella bride. The Lucky Charm Sisters: A boss, a brain and a beauty. Three sisters marry for convenience…but will they find love?

He's My Hero A protector, a provider, a friend and a lover–he's every woman's hero. MOST ELIGIBLE SOLDIER The government wanted protocol specialist Chessey Banks Bailey to teach rough-around-the-edges Lieutenant Derek McKenna how to be a gentleman. And though he was her student, Derek was the sexiest, most intriguing man Chessey had ever met. From the moment he kissed her without warning, Chessey knew she wanted to be his bride. But even though blue blood Chessey had him second-guessing his bachelor status, walking down the aisle was the furthest thing from Derek's mind. Could Chesssey enlist the reluctant soldier for a lifetime of love?

A Kind of Magic Part-time witch, full-time glamorous high-flyer Esme Mcleod rubs shoulders with celebrities for a living, has a sort-of-boyfriend …and just enough magic in her fingertips to solve life’s little irritations; why shouldn’t she cast a little spell to catch the busy barman’s attention, or to summon a latte to aid her all-nighters? Called back to her small Scottish home town and meddling family, stiletto-clad Esme is way out of her comfort zone… But Esme must embrace her abilities as a witch, or watch her family lose their beloved café. Except Esme has never claimed to be a whizz at witchcraft, and her charms are starting to go awry – she certainly never meant to cast a love spell on her ex-boyfriend Jamie! It’s time for urgent lessons in magic as well as love – it seems there’s only so much that muttering a few words over cupcake batter will fix… Don't miss the Could It Be Magic series: 1 – Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered 2 – I Put a Spell on You 3 – Baby It's Cold Outside 4 – I’ll Be There For You 5 – A Spoonful of Sugar (novella) What readers are saying about Kerry Barrett 'I was absorbed from the first page' – Pass The Gin 'It was just lovely! I loved the plot, I loved the spells and the magic, I loved the characters and I loved the writing. Kerry Barrett is a talented writer and I’m so pleased I got the chance to review her debut novel and here’s hoping there will be many more!' – Chick Lit Reviews and News 'This is a story filled with heart-warming characters full of family loyalty, a little romance … sprinkled with magic and humour throughout which will leave you, like me wanting to find out what happen next for Esme and her family.’ – That Thing She Reads

‘First of all, let’s get something straight. This is not going to be one of those stories where the school bitch turns out to have a heart of gold…’ Amie’s the most popular – and the meanest –girl at her exclusive private school, with her trusty second in command Lexy by her side. And she likes it that way. Lexy knows that she deserves Amie’s prized position just as much but dethroning the Queen Bee just isn’t done. Until mysterious twins Elyse and Melanie arrive mid-term, with a magnetic power that’s impossible to deny, and shake up the school’s social rules. As the twins leave darkness and devastation in their wake, Lexy’s suddenly discovering her own powers of manipulation. Whilst Amie’s about to learn that it’s not just lonely at the top – it’s terrifying. A Gemini Rising story

In an age of dragons and fairies, you could make a wish to the fire-breathers by sacrificing your most cherished possessions. In an age of digital assistants, you might just find J.J. as your own personal Secret Santa. J.J. is sent by her company's AI computer, Gem, to make River Sierra's wish come true before she realizes what it is—become River's fairy mother and marry her father, widower Raven Sierra. Will the pair have to crush River's dreams of a world with make-believe, or will the two discover that magic can still work its way through their lives?

A Sunday Times Bestseller ‘O’Brien cleverly intertwines the personal and political in this enjoyable, gripping tale.’ -The Times Her children or her crown France, 1399: The Duke of Brittany is dead and his widow, Joanna of Navarre, has inherited control of their land – a testament to her intellect, integrity and political prowess. Then comes an unprecedented proposal from Henry IV, King of England. The price of becoming his Queen? Abandoning her homeland, leaving her children and sacrificing her independence. Henry's hold on the crown is unsteady and war is brewing. With the constant threat of rebellion, Henry will trust no-one – not even his new Queen. Crossing the channel is a dangerous prospect. But the union between Joanna and Henry would bring the chance of a vital alliance between two proud states – if they will allow it. One question. Two paths. A choice that will make history. Praise for The Queen’s Choice ‘A gem of a subject … O’Brien is a terrific storyteller’ - Daily Telegraph ‘Joanna of Navarre is the feisty heroine in Anne O’Brien’s fast-paced historical novel The Queen’s Choice.’ -Good Housekeeping ‘A gripping story of love, heartache and political intrigue.’ -Woman & Home ‘Packed with drama, danger, romance and history.’ -Pam Norfolk, for the Press Association ‘A gripping historical drama.’ -Bella www.anneobrien.co.uk @anne_obrien

Billy and Gracie Myers don’t believe in magic. Not even at Christmastime. They don’t believe in ghosts. Not even when they discover a haunted house in the woods behind their home. Filomena Albright lives in that house, and maybe, just maybe, she can bring a little magic into their lives—and their father’s. Evan Myers is overworked and stressed out, steering his chain of sporting-goods stores through the hectic pre-holiday retail season while raising his young son and daughter single-handedly. He has no time to think, let alone think about the woman who has taken up residence in the mysterious house through the forest. But when Gracie’s preschool teacher warns Evan that he’d better get some help, he turns to the Daddy School—and Filomena. That she dazzles him with her intelligence, her energy, and her beauty is irrelevant. She’ll be gone with the new year. For now, though, for these few weeks before Christmas, maybe she can be everything Evan and his children need her to be. Christmas is a time of magic, after all.

Love Unspoken

Never before had a guest at Stafford Cottage triggered sensual tremors in the reserved innkeeper, but Colin St. James was like an earthquake to her soul. Hurt once by false love, Lizbeth had poured herself into work, but she deeply desired a family. With Colin. But these were flimsy dreams, for he was filled with wanderlust??? and Lizbeth-lust??? not love. So each time he came near, she would skitter away. And with every kiss she would replace her sounds of pleasure with protest. But what if her ??? rejection??? worked and her dream man disappeared into the night? Maybe she should encourage him??? just a little....

A New York Times Bestselling Author She'd never trust a man again . . . and all Dana Westlake wanted was to be left alone to mend her broken heart. Then one stormy night, a wounded cowboy appeared on her doorstep. And though Dana tried to protect her emotions while she nursed Chay Lone Elk's wounds, she couldn't stop her pulse from racing at his touch, or her heart from melting.

With her family business to run, Kat Bennet doesn't have time for love - until a sexy stranger comes into her life! Kat quickly discovers that Daniel West has a hidden reason for being in town, and she's roped into helping him with his assignment. Working closely with Kat, Daniel realizes he wants her as his bride - but will she say yes when he reveals his secret agenda?

A mother for his son - Dedicated consultant and devoted single dad Hamish Adams is teh heartthrob of the emergency room. Hamish's life is a nonstop juggling act. Between caring for his young son and managing his demanding job, Hamish has no time for women. For the sake of his heart, and his child, that's how he intends to stay. That is, until beautiful nurse Charlotte Porter whirls into their lives! Vivacious, caring Charlotte is just what Jamish and little Cameron need. With Charlotte by their side, Hamish knows they would make a perfect family. But first he must put his heart on the line and ask Charlotte to be his wife.

Over 100 practical recipes related to network and application security auditing using the powerful Nmap About This Book ? Learn through practical recipes how to use Nmap for a wide range of tasks for system administrators and penetration testers. ? Learn the latest and most useful features of Nmap and the Nmap Scripting Engine. ? Learn to audit the security of networks, web applications, databases, mail servers, Microsoft Windows servers/workstations and even ICS systems. ? Learn to develop your own modules for the Nmap Scripting Engine. ? Become familiar with Lua programming. ? 100% practical tasks, relevant and explained step-by-step with exact commands and optional arguments de*ion Who This Book Is For The book is for anyone who wants to master Nmap and its *ing engine to perform real life security auditing checks for system administrators and penetration testers. This book is also recommended to anyone looking to learn about network security auditing. Finally, novice Nmap users will also learn a lot from this book as it covers several advanced internal aspects of Nmap and related tools. What You Will Learn ? Learn about Nmap and related tools, such as Ncat, Ncrack, Ndiff, Zenmap and the Nmap Scripting Engine ? Master basic and advanced techniques to perform port scanning and host discovery ? Detect insecure configurations and vulnerabilities in web servers, databases, and mail servers ? Learn how to detect insecure Microsoft Windows workstations and scan networks using the Active Directory technology ? Learn how to safely identify and scan critical ICS/SCADA systems ? Learn how to optimize the performance and behavior of your scans ? Learn about advanced reporting ? Learn the fundamentals of Lua programming ? Become familiar with the development libraries shipped with the NSE ? Write your own Nmap Scripting Engine *s In Detail This is the second edition of 'Nmap 6: Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook'. A book aimed for anyone who wants to master Nmap and its *ing engine through practical tasks for system administrators and penetration testers. Besides introducing the most powerful features of Nmap and related tools, common security auditing tasks for local and remote networks, web applications, databases, mail servers, Microsoft Windows machines and even ICS SCADA systems are explained step by step with exact commands and argument explanations. The book starts with the basic usage of Nmap and related tools like Ncat, Ncrack, Ndiff and Zenmap. The Nmap Scripting Engine is thoroughly covered through security checks used commonly in real-life scenarios applied for different types of systems. New chapters for Microsoft Windows and ICS SCADA systems were added and every recipe was revised. This edition reflects the latest updates and hottest additions to the Nmap project to date. The book will also introduce you to Lua programming and NSE * development allowing you to extend further the power of Nmap. Style and approach This book consists of practical recipes on network exploration and security auditing techniques, enabling you to get hands-on experience through real life scenarios.

Create efficient and smart web applications with jQuery 3.0 using this step-by-step practical tutorial About This Book ? Create a fully featured and responsive client-side application using jQuery ? Explore all the latest features of jQuery 3.0 and code examples updated to reflect modern JavaScript environments ? Develop high performance interactive pages Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for client-side JavaScript developers. You do need to have any previous experience with jQuery, although basic JavaScript programming knowledge is necessary. What You Will Learn ? Create custom interactive elements for your web designs ? Find out how to create the best user interface for your web applications ? Use selectors in a variety of ways to get anything you want from a page when you need it ? Master events to bring your web pages to life ? Add flair to your actions with a variety of different animation effects ? Discover the latest features available in jQuery with the latest update of this incredibly popular title ? Using jQuery npm Packages In Detail If you are a web developer and want to create web applications that look good, are efficient, have rich user interfaces, and integrate seamlessly with any backend using AJAX, then this book is the ideal match for you. We’ll show you how you can integrate jQuery 3.0 into your web pages, avoid complex JavaScript code, create brilliant animation effects for your web applications, and create a flawless app. We start by configuring and customising the jQuery environment, and getting hands-on with DOM manipulation. Next, we’ll explore event handling advanced animations, creating optimised user interfaces, and building useful third-party plugins. Also, we'll learn how to integrate jQuery with your favourite back-end framework. Moving on, we’ll learn how the ECMAScript 6 features affect your web development process with jQuery. we’ll discover how to use the newly introduced JavaScript promises and the new animation API in jQuery 3.0 in great detail, along with sample code and examples. By the end of the book, you will be able to successfully create a fully featured and efficient single page web application and leverage all the new features of jQuery 3.0 effectively. Style and approach Create efficient client-side apps that look great and run seamlessly across all devices with this step-by-step practical guide. There are illustrative examples for those who need extra help to get started with jQuery web development.

Master over 80 object-oriented recipes to create amazing GUIs in Python and revolutionize your applications today About This Book ? Use object-oriented programming to develop amazing GUIs in Python ? Create a working GUI project as a central resource for developing your Python GUIs ? Easy-to-follow recipes to help you develop code using the latest released version of Python Who This Book Is For This book is for intermediate Python programmers who wish to enhance their Python skills by writing powerful GUIs in Python. As Python is such a great and easy to learn language, this book is also ideal for any developer with experience of other languages and enthusiasm to expand their horizon. What You Will Learn ? Create the GUI Form and add widgets ? Arrange the widgets using layout managers ? Use object-oriented programming to create GUIs ? Create Matplotlib charts ? Use threads and talking to networks ? Talk to a MySQL database via the GUI ? Perform unit-testing and internationalizing the GUI ? Extend the GUI with third-party graphical libraries ? Get to know the best practices to create GUIs In Detail Python is a multi-domain, interpreted programming language. It is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. It is often used as a *ing language because of its forgiving syntax and compatibility with a wide variety of different eco-systems. Python GUI Programming Cookbook follows a task-based approach to help you create beautiful and very effective GUIs with the least amount of code necessary. This book will guide you through the very basics of creating a fully functional GUI in Python with only a few lines of code. Each and every recipe adds more widgets to the GUIs we are creating. While the cookbook recipes all stand on their own, there is a common theme running through all of them. As our GUIs keep expanding, using more and more widgets, we start to talk to networks, databases, and graphical libraries that greatly enhance our GUI’s functionality. This book is what you need to expand your knowledge on the subject of GUIs, and make sure you’re not missing out in the long run. Style and approach This programming cookbook consists of standalone recipes, and this approach makes it unique.. While each recipe explains a certain concept, throughout the book you’ll build a more and more advanced GUI, recipe after recipe. In some of the advanced topics, we simply create a new GUI in order to explore these topics in depth.

A practical guide to building programmable networks using OpenDaylight About This Book ? Learn and understand how SDN controllers operate and integrate with networks; this book's step-by-step tutorials will give you a strong foundation in SDN, NVF, and OpenDayLight. ? Learn how to map legacy Layer 2/3 networking technologies in the SDN world ? Add new services and capabilities to your infrastructure and quickly adopt SDN and NFV within your organization with OpenDayLight. ? Integrate and manage software-defined networks efficiently in your organization. ? Build innovative network applications with OpenDayLight and save time and resources. Who This Book Is For This book targets network engineers, network programmers and developers, administrators, and anyone with some level of networking experience who'd like to deploy OpenDayLight effectively. Familiarity with the day-to-day operations of computer networks is expected What You Will Learn ? Transition from legacy networking to software-defined networking ? Learn how SDN controllers work and manage a network using southbound and northbound APIs ? Learn how to deploy the OpenDayLight SDN controller and integrate it with virtual switches ? Understand the basic design and operation of the OpenDaylight platform ? Build simple MD-SAL OpenDaylight applications ? Build applications on top of OpenDayLight to trigger network changes based on different events ? Integrate OpenStack with OpenDayLight to build a fully managed network ? Learn how to build a software-defined datacenter using NFV and service-chaining technologies In Detail OpenDaylight is an open source, software-defined network controller based on standard protocols. It aims to accelerate the adoption of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and create a solid foundation for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). SDN is a vast subject; many network engineers find it difficult to get started with using and operating different SDN platforms. This book will give you a practical bridge from SDN theory to the practical, real-world use of SDN in datacenters and by cloud providers. The book will help you understand the features and use cases for SDN, NFV, and OpenDaylight. NFV uses virtualization concepts and techniques to create virtual classes for node functions. Used together, SDN and NFV can elevate the standards of your network architecture; generic hardware-saving costs and the advanced and abstracted software will give you the freedom to evolve your network in the future without having to invest more in costly equipment. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to design and deploy OpenDaylight networks and integrate them with physical network switches. You will also have mastered basic network programming over the SDN fabric. Style and approach This is a step-by-step tutorial aimed at getting you up-to-speed with OpenDayLight and ready to adopt it for your SDN (Software-Defined Networking) and NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) ecosystem.

Implement classic and functional data structures and algorithms using Python About This Book ? A step by step guide, which will provide you with a thorough discussion on the analysis and design of fundamental Python data structures. ? Get a better understanding of advanced Python concepts such as big-o notation, dynamic programming, and functional data structures. ? Explore illustrations to present data structures and algorithms, as well as their analysis, in a clear, visual manner. Who This Book Is For The book will appeal to Python developers. A basic knowledge of Python is expected. What You Will Learn ? Gain a solid understanding of Python data structures. ? Build sophisticated data applications. ? Understand the common programming patterns and algorithms used in Python data science. ? Write efficient robust code. In Detail Data structures allow you to organize data in a particular way efficiently. They are critical to any problem, provide a complete solution, and act like reusable code. In this book, you will learn the essential Python data structures and the most common algorithms. With this easy-to-read book, you will be able to understand the power of linked lists, double linked lists, and circular linked lists. You will be able to create complex data structures such as graphs, stacks and queues. We will explore the application of binary searches and binary search trees. You will learn the common techniques and structures used in tasks such as preprocessing, modeling, and transforming data. We will also discuss how to organize your code in a manageable, consistent, and extendable way. The book will explore in detail sorting algorithms such as bubble sort, selection sort, insertion sort, and merge sort. By the end of the book, you will learn how to build components that are easy to understand, debug, and use in different applications. Style and approach The easy-to-read book with its fast-paced nature will improve the productivity of Python programmers and improve the performance of Python applications.

Deep dive into the unified, distributed storage system in order to provide excellent performance About This Book ? Leverage Ceph's advanced features such as erasure coding, tiering, and Bluestore ? Solve large-scale problems with Ceph as a tool by understanding its strengths and weaknesses to develop the best solutions ? A practical guide that covers engaging use cases to help you use advanced features of Ceph effectively Who This Book Is For If you are a developer and an administrator who has deployed a Ceph cluster before and are curious about some of the most advanced features in order to improve performance then this book is for you What You Will Learn ?Know when and how to use some of Ceph's advanced new features ? Set up a test cluster with Ansible and some virtual machines using VirtualBox and Vagrant ?Develop novel solutions to massive problems with librados and shared object classes. ? Choose intelligent parameters for an erasure coded pool and set it up. ? Configure the Bluestore settings and see how they interact with different hardware configurations. ? Keep Ceph running through thick and thin with tuning, monitoring and disaster recovery advice. In Detail Mastering Ceph covers all that you need to know to use Ceph effectively. Starting with design goals and planning steps that should be undertaken to ensure successful deployments, you will be guided through to setting up and deploying the Ceph cluster, with the help of orchestration tools. Key areas of Ceph including Bluestore, Erasure coding and cache tiering will be covered with help of examples. Development of applications which use Librados and Distributed computations with shared object classes are also covered. A section on tuning will take you through the process of optimisizing both Ceph and its supporting infrastructure. Finally, you will learn to troubleshoot issues and handle various scenarios where Ceph is likely not to recover on its own. By the end of the book, you will be able to successfully deploy and operate a resilient high performance Ceph cluster. Style and approach A practical guide which has each chapter explaining the concept, sharing tips and tricks and a use case to implement the most powerful features of Ceph

Take tiny steps to enter the big world of data science through this interesting guide About This Book ? Learn the fundamentals of machine learning and build your own intelligent applications ? Master the art of building your own machine learning systems with this example-based practical guide ? Work with important classification and regression algorithms and other machine learning techniques Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone interested in entering the data science stream with machine learning. Basic familiarity with Python is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Exploit the power of Python to handle data extraction, manipulation, and exploration techniques ? Use Python to visualize data spread across multiple dimensions and extract useful features ? Dive deep into the world of analytics to predict situations correctly ? Implement machine learning classification and regression algorithms from scratch in Python ? Be amazed to see the algorithms in action ? Evaluate the performance of a machine learning model and optimize it ? Solve interesting real-world problems using machine learning and Python as the journey unfolds In Detail Data science and machine learning are some of the top buzzwords in the technical world today. A resurging interest in machine learning is due to the same factors that have made data mining and Bayesian analysis more popular than ever. This book is your entry point to machine learning. This book starts with an introduction to machine learning and the Python language and shows you how to complete the setup. Moving ahead, you will learn all the important concepts such as, exploratory data analysis, data preprocessing, feature extraction, data visualization and clustering, classification, regression and model performance evaluation. With the help of various projects included, you will find it intriguing to acquire the mechanics of several important machine learning algorithms – they are no more obscure as they thought. Also, you will be guided step by step to build your own models from scratch. Toward the end, you will gather a broad picture of the machine learning ecosystem and best practices of applying machine learning techniques. Through this book, you will learn to tackle data-driven problems and implement your solutions with the powerful yet simple language, Python. Interesting and easy-to-follow examples, to name some, news topic classification, spam email detection, online ad click-through prediction, stock prices forecast, will keep you glued till you reach your goal. Style and approach This book is an enticing journey that starts from the very basics and gradually picks up pace as the story unfolds. Each concept is first succinctly defined in the larger context of things, followed by a detailed explanation of their application. Every concept is explained with the help of a project that solves a real-world problem, and involves hands-on work—giving you a deep insight into the world of machine learning. With simple yet rich language—Python—you will understand and be able to implement the examples with ease.

Store, search, and analyze your data with ease using Elasticsearch 5.x About This Book ? Get to grips with the basics of Elasticsearch concepts and its APIs, and use them to create efficient applications ? Create large-scale Elasticsearch clusters and perform analytics using aggregation ? This comprehensive guide will get you up and running with Elasticsearch 5.x in no time Who This Book Is For If you want to build efficient search and analytics applications using Elasticsearch, this book is for you. It will also benefit developers who have worked with Lucene or Solr before and now want to work with Elasticsearch. No previous knowledge of Elasticsearch is expected. What You Will Learn ? See how to set up and configure Elasticsearch and Kibana ? Know how to ingest structured and unstructured data using Elasticsearch ? Understand how a search engine works and the concepts of relevance and scoring ? Find out how to query Elasticsearch with a high degree of performance and scalability ? Improve the user experience by using autocomplete, geolocation queries, and much more ? See how to slice and dice your data using Elasticsearch aggregations. ? Grasp how to use Kibana to explore and visualize your data ? Know how to host on Elastic Cloud and how to use the latest X-Pack features such as Graph and Alerting In Detail Elasticsearch is a modern, fast, distributed, scalable, fault tolerant, and open source search and analytics engine. You can use Elasticsearch for small or large applications with billions of documents. It is built to scale horizontally and can handle both structured and unstructured data. Packed with easy-to- follow examples, this book will ensure you will have a firm understanding of the basics of Elasticsearch and know how to utilize its capabilities efficiently. You will install and set up Elasticsearch and Kibana, and handle documents using the Distributed Document Store. You will see how to query, search, and index your data, and perform aggregation-based analytics with ease. You will see how to use Kibana to explore and visualize your data. Further on, you will learn to handle document relationships, work with geospatial data, and much more, with this easy-to-follow guide. Finally, you will see how you can set up and scale your Elasticsearch clusters in production environments. Style and approach This comprehensive guide will get you started with Elasticsearch 5.x, so you build a solid understanding of the basics. Every topic is explained in depth and is supplemented with practical examples to enhance your understanding.