CHRISTMAS CAME TO SHERIFF JOSH McCAIN'S HOUSE WITH MORE THAN A FEW SURPRISES He'd been solitary for so long–his own man. Then suddenly a single father doing his best. But above all, the Montana lawman did what was right no matter the cost. Until he met Chrysie Atwater and her two girls. She had a fake name, a fake past and few details in between. And for some reason Josh found her totally irresistible. Was it the spirit of Christmas that had him breaking the rules, or his own loneliness? More likely it was the fierce determination he saw in Chrysie's eyes. She went to considerable trouble to protect her daughters, and Josh was resolved to fi nd out why. But he'd do it on his terms before he'd reveal her secrets to the authorities, who he suspected were involved in setting her up. It would take a Christmas miracle and then some to do that and still celebrate Christmas as a family….

Silent memories unlock simmering passions… He found her on the beach with no memory and a gun…FBI Agent Ryan Williams had a soft spot for women in distress and this one was a textbook example. He'd come to Paradise for some R and R–instead he took in a beautiful stranger with killers on her trail. Ryan had named her AJ, but she hadn't a clue to her identity. Even her reflection was that of a stranger's. But she knew something terrible had happened to those closest to her. Because of her. And unless she unlocked the secrets of her past, Ryan's kindness and his growing feelings for her would be repaid in blood….

HER CHILD NEEDED SECURITY… Single mother Anya Bouchard Parrish lived in a guarded institution with her prodigy son who was schooled by elite instructors. Anya never felt more at risk…or more attracted to the handsome businessman who watched her every move. Roman charmed her with his dark brown eyes and seductive smile, but she couldn't help thinking he kept something from her. Roman Alexander had a secret mission: to keep Anya safe. While he functioned as a leader in a corrupt organization, he worked undercover to bring down his colleagues and help Anya and her son escape. Falling in love wasn't in his plans. Now, Roman had a woman and child in his care to complicate matters–which only fueled his determination to protect them.

HARBORING DESIRE Haunted by a traumatic past, Carrie Bishop exiled herself on the shadowy Cape Diablo island in search of the truth. She never expected to cross paths with a steely-eyed stranger as she combed a crumbling Spanish villa for clues. Nick Draco was as primitive and dangerous as the land he inhabited…and yet his magnetic presence awakened a breathless yearning inside her. An intense premonition of evil on the island left her chilled to the bone, but when they unearthed a menacing thirty-year-old mystery lurking within the estate's dilapidated walls, it was in Nick's arms where Carrie sought protection…and succumbed to seduction. Now, nothing could prepare either of them for the sinister revelations that were about to engulf Cape Diablo….

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.

Build scalable, reliable, and cost-effective applications with a serverless architecture About This Book ? Design a real-world serverless application from scratch ? Learn about AWS Lambda function and how to use Lambda functions to glue other AWS Services ? Use the Java programming language and well-known design patterns. Although Java is used for the examples in this book, the concept is applicable across all languages ? Learn to migrate your JAX-RS application to AWS Lambda and API Gateway Who This Book Is For This book is for developers and software architects who are interested in designing on the back end. Since the book uses Java to teach concepts, knowledge of Java is required. What You Will Learn ? Learn to form microservices from bigger Softwares ? Orchestrate and scale microservices ? Design and set up the data flow between cloud services and custom business logic ? Get to grips with cloud provider’s APIs, limitations, and known issues ? Migrate existing Java applications to a serverless architecture ? Acquire deployment strategies ? Build a highly available and scalable data persistence layer ? Unravel cost optimization techniques In Detail Over the past years, all kind of companies from start-ups to giant enterprises started their move to public cloud providers in order to save their costs and reduce the operation effort needed to keep their shops open. Now it is even possible to craft a complex software system consisting of many independent micro-functions that will run only when they are needed without needing to maintain individual servers. The focus of this book is to design serverless architectures, and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this approach, along with decision factors to consider. You will learn how to design a serverless application, get to know that key points of services that serverless applications are based on, and known issues and solutions. The book addresses key challenges such as how to slice out the core functionality of the software to be distributed in different cloud services and cloud functions. It covers basic and advanced usage of these services, testing and securing the serverless software, automating deployment, and more. By the end of the book, you will be equipped with knowledge of new tools and techniques to keep up with this evolution in the IT industry. Style and approach The book takes a pragmatic approach, showing you all the examples you need to build efficient serverless applications.

A practical guide to help you undertand the ability of Apache jMeter to load and performance test various server types in a more efficient way. About This Book ? Use jMeter to create and run tests to improve the performance of your webpages and applications ? Learn to build a test plan for your websites and analyze the results ? Unleash the power of various features and changes introduced in Apache jMeter 3.0 Who This Book Is For This book is for software professionals who want to understand and improve the performance of their applications with Apache jMeter. What You Will Learn ? See why performance testing is necessary and learn how to set up JMeter ? Record and test with JMeter ? Handle various form inputs in JMeter and parse results during testing ? Manage user sessions in web applications in the context of a JMeter test ? Monitor JMeter results in real time ? Perform distributed testing with JMeter ? Get acquainted with helpful tips and best practices for working with JMeter In Detail JMeter is a Java application designed to load and test performance for web application. JMeter extends to improve the functioning of various other static and dynamic resources. This book is a great starting point to learn about JMeter. It covers the new features introduced with JMeter 3 and enables you to dive deep into the new techniques needed for measuring your website performance. The book starts with the basics of performance testing and guides you through recording your first test scenario, before diving deeper into JMeter. You will also learn how to configure JMeter and browsers to help record test plans. Moving on, you will learn how to capture form submission in JMeter, dive into managing sessions with JMeter and see how to leverage some of the components provided by JMeter to handle web application HTTP sessions. You will also learn how JMeter can help monitor tests in real-time. Further, you will go in depth into distributed testing and see how to leverage the capabilities of JMeter to accomplish this. You will get acquainted with some tips and best practices with regard to performance testing. By the end of the book, you will have learned how to take full advantage of the real power behind Apache JMeter. Style and approach The book is a practical guide starting with introducing the readers to the importance of automated testing. It will then be a beginner’s journey from getting introduced to Apache jMeter to an in-detail discussion of more advanced features and possibilities with it.

Build Machine Learning models with a sound statistical understanding. About This Book ? Learn about the statistics behind powerful predictive models with p-value, ANOVA, and F- statistics. ? Implement statistical computations programmatically for supervised and unsupervised learning through K-means clustering. ? Master the statistical aspect of Machine Learning with the help of this example-rich guide to R and Python. Who This Book Is For This book is intended for developers with little to no background in statistics, who want to implement Machine Learning in their systems. Some programming knowledge in R or Python will be useful. What You Will Learn ? Understand the Statistical and Machine Learning fundamentals necessary to build models ? Understand the major differences and parallels between the statistical way and the Machine Learning way to solve problems ? Learn how to prepare data and feed models by using the appropriate Machine Learning algorithms from the more-than-adequate R and Python packages ? Analyze the results and tune the model appropriately to your own predictive goals ? Understand the concepts of required statistics for Machine Learning ? Introduce yourself to necessary fundamentals required for building supervised & unsupervised deep learning models ? Learn reinforcement learning and its application in the field of artificial intelligence domain In Detail Complex statistics in Machine Learning worry a lot of developers. Knowing statistics helps you build strong Machine Learning models that are optimized for a given problem statement. This book will teach you all it takes to perform complex statistical computations required for Machine Learning. You will gain information on statistics behind supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, and more. Understand the real-world examples that discuss the statistical side of Machine Learning and familiarize yourself with it. You will also design programs for performing tasks such as model, parameter fitting, regression, classification, density collection, and more. By the end of the book, you will have mastered the required statistics for Machine Learning and will be able to apply your new skills to any sort of industry problem. Style and approach This practical, step-by-step guide will give you an understanding of the Statistical and Machine Learning fundamentals you'll need to build models.

Develop deep neural networks in Theano with practical code examples for image classification, machine translation, reinforcement agents, or generative models. About This Book ? Learn Theano basics and evaluate your mathematical expressions faster and in an efficient manner ? Learn the design patterns of deep neural architectures to build efficient and powerful networks on your datasets ? Apply your knowledge to concrete fields such as image classification, object detection, chatbots, machine translation, reinforcement agents, or generative models. Who This Book Is For This book is indented to provide a full overview of deep learning. From the beginner in deep learning and artificial intelligence, to the data scientist who wants to become familiar with Theano and its supporting libraries, or have an extended understanding of deep neural nets. Some basic skills in Python programming and computer science will help, as well as skills in elementary algebra and calculus. What You Will Learn ? Get familiar with Theano and deep learning ? Provide examples in supervised, unsupervised, generative, or reinforcement learning. ? Discover the main principles for designing efficient deep learning nets: convolutions, residual connections, and recurrent connections. ? Use Theano on real-world computer vision datasets, such as for digit classification and image classification. ? Extend the use of Theano to natural language processing tasks, for chatbots or machine translation ? Cover artificial intelligence-driven strategies to enable a robot to solve games or learn from an environment ? Generate synthetic data that looks real with generative modeling ? Become familiar with Lasagne and Keras, two frameworks built on top of Theano In Detail This book offers a complete overview of Deep Learning with Theano, a Python-based library that makes optimizing numerical expressions and deep learning models easy on CPU or GPU. The book provides some practical code examples that help the beginner understand how easy it is to build complex neural networks, while more experimented data scientists will appreciate the reach of the book, addressing supervised and unsupervised learning, generative models, reinforcement learning in the fields of image recognition, natural language processing, or game strategy. The book also discusses image recognition tasks that range from simple digit recognition, image classification, object localization, image segmentation, to image captioning. Natural language processing examples include text generation, chatbots, machine translation, and question answering. The last example deals with generating random data that looks real and solving games such as in the Open-AI gym. At the end, this book sums up the best -performing nets for each task. While early research results were based on deep stacks of neural layers, in particular, convolutional layers, the book presents the principles that improved the efficiency of these architectures, in order to help the reader build new custom nets. Style and approach It is an easy-to-follow example book that teaches you how to perform fast, efficient computations in Python. Starting with the very basics-NumPy, installing Theano, this book will take you to the smooth journey of implementing Theano for advanced computations for machine learning and deep learning.

This unique book provides you with a wealth of tips, tricks, best practices, and answers to the day-to-day questions that programmers face in their careers. It is split into three parts: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, providing the knowledge you need to get ahead in programming. About This Book ? Over 50 essays with practical advice on improving your programming career ? Practical focus gives solutions to common problems, and methods to become a better coder ? Includes advice for existing programmers and those wanting to begin a career in programming Who This Book Is For This book is useful for programmers of any ability or discipline. It has advice for those thinking about beginning a career in programming, those already working as a fully employed programmer, and for those working as freelance developers. What You Will Learn ? Improve your soft skills to become a better and happier coder ? Learn to be a better developer ? Grow your freelance development business ? Improve your development career ? Learn the best approaches to breaking down complex topics ? Have the confidence to charge what you're worth as a freelancer ? Succeed in developer job interviews In Detail This is an all-purpose toolkit for your programming career. It has been built by Jordan Hudgens over a lifetime of coding and teaching coding. It helps you identify the key questions and stumbling blocks that programmers encounter, and gives you the answers to them! It is a comprehensive guide containing more than 50 insights that you can use to improve your work, and to give advice in your career. The book is split up into three topic areas: Coder Skills, Freelancer Skills, and Career Skills, each containing a wealth of practical advice. Coder Skills contains advice for people starting out, or those who are already working in a programming role but want to improve their skills. It includes such subjects as: how to study and understand complex topics, and getting past skill plateaus when learning new languages. Freelancer Skills contains advice for developers working as freelancers or with freelancers. It includes such subjects as: knowing when to fire a client, and tips for taking over legacy applications. Career Skills contains advice for building a successful career as a developer. It includes such subjects as: how to improve your programming techniques, and interview guides and developer salary negotiation strategies. Style and approach This unique book provides over 50 insightful essays full of practical advice for improving your programming career. The book is split into three broad sections covering different aspects of a developer's career. Each essay is self-contained and can be read individually, or in chunks.

This book is your guide to exploring the possibilities in the field of deep learning, making use of Google's TensorFlow. You will learn about convolutional neural networks, and logistic regression while training models for deep learning to gain key insights into your data. About This Book ? Explore various possibilities with deep learning and gain amazing insights from data using Google’s brainchild-- TensorFlow ? Want to learn what more can be done with deep learning? Explore various neural networks with the help of this comprehensive guide ? Rich in concepts, advanced guide on deep learning that will give you background to innovate in your environment Who This Book Is For If you are a data scientist who performs machine learning on a regular basis, are familiar with deep neural networks, and now want to gain expertise in working with convoluted neural networks, then this book is for you. Some familiarity with C++ or Python is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Set up your computing environment and install TensorFlow ? Build simple TensorFlow graphs for everyday computations ? Apply logistic regression for classification with TensorFlow ? Design and train a multilayer neural network with TensorFlow ? Intuitively understand convolutional neural networks for image recognition ? Bootstrap a neural network from simple to more accurate models ? See how to use TensorFlow with other types of networks ? Program networks with SciKit-Flow, a high-level interface to TensorFlow In Detail Dan Van Boxel’s Deep Learning with TensorFlow is based on Dan’s best-selling TensorFlow video course. With deep learning going mainstream, making sense of data and getting accurate results using deep networks is possible. Dan Van Boxel will be your guide to exploring the possibilities with deep learning; he will enable you to understand data like never before. With the efficiency and simplicity of TensorFlow, you will be able to process your data and gain insights that will change how you look at data. With Dan’s guidance, you will dig deeper into the hidden layers of abstraction using raw data. Dan then shows you various complex algorithms for deep learning and various examples that use these deep neural networks. You will also learn how to train your machine to craft new features to make sense of deeper layers of data. In this book, Dan shares his knowledge across topics such as logistic regression, convolutional neural networks, recurrent neural networks, training deep networks, and high level interfaces. With the help of novel practical examples, you will become an ace at advanced multilayer networks, image recognition, and beyond. Style and Approach This book is your go-to guide to becoming a deep learning expert in your organization. Dan helps you evaluate common and not-so-common deep neural networks with the help of insightful examples that you can relate to, and show how they can be exploited in the real world with complex raw data.

This book covers the fundamentals of machine learning with Python in a concise and dynamic manner. It covers data mining and large-scale machine learning using Apache Spark. About This Book ? Take your first steps in the world of data science by understanding the tools and techniques of data analysis ? Train efficient Machine Learning models in Python using the supervised and unsupervised learning methods ? Learn how to use Apache Spark for processing Big Data efficiently Who This Book Is For If you are a budding data scientist or a data analyst who wants to analyze and gain actionable insights from data using Python, this book is for you. Programmers with some experience in Python who want to enter the lucrative world of Data Science will also find this book to be very useful, but you don't need to be an expert Python coder or mathematician to get the most from this book. What You Will Learn ? Learn how to clean your data and ready it for analysis ? Implement the popular clustering and regression methods in Python ? Train efficient machine learning models using decision trees and random forests ? Visualize the results of your analysis using Python’s Matplotlib library ? Use Apache Spark’s MLlib package to perform machine learning on large datasets In Detail Join Frank Kane, who worked on Amazon and IMDb’s machine learning algorithms, as he guides you on your first steps into the world of data science. Hands-On Data Science and Python Machine Learning gives you the tools that you need to understand and explore the core topics in the field, and the confidence and practice to build and analyze your own machine learning models. With the help of interesting and easy-to-follow practical examples, Frank Kane explains potentially complex topics such as Bayesian methods and K-means clustering in a way that anybody can understand them. Based on Frank’s successful data science course, Hands-On Data Science and Python Machine Learning empowers you to conduct data analysis and perform efficient machine learning using Python. Let Frank help you unearth the value in your data using the various data mining and data analysis techniques available in Python, and to develop efficient predictive models to predict future results. You will also learn how to perform large-scale machine learning on Big Data using Apache Spark. The book covers preparing your data for analysis, training machine learning models, and visualizing the final data analysis. Style and approach This comprehensive book is a perfect blend of theory and hands-on code examples in Python which can be used for your reference at any time.

Bachelor Gulch The Bachelor: Wyatt McCully, dedicated–and extremely eligible–town sheriff. Though husband-hungry women were flocking to Jasper Gulch, there was only one single gal Wyatt wanted. The Bride: Lisa Markman, a woman with a yearning for marriage, and with a secret. She couldn't dare consider lawman Wyatt as a potential groom. The sexy sheriff could tell when a woman was interested, and Lisa had all the signs of succumbing to his charming ways. So why did she refuse to take his heartfelt proposals seriously? Wyatt decided he had to uncover everything about the mysterious woman he intended to claim as his wife, and set out to make the pursuit his pleasure…and hers! Bachelor Gulch. This little town wanted women–but are these bachelors ready for marriage?

There's no place like home… Unless, like Kaarl, you are a demon and your home is Hell…literally! While the rest of Hell enjoys cruel games, Kaarl is looking for a new challenge. So he makes a deal with the devil himself: time in the Mortal Realm in return for human souls… The Mortal Realm offers a taste of freedom he could never experience in Hell and Kaarl jumps at the chance to fulfil his dream. But gathering human souls comes with a cost and as more and more souls lose their way, Kaarl realises that he is creating Hell on his beloved Earth. Now to save the Mortal Realm, Kaarl's going to have to switch sides… Praise for JL Morris 'This was a great read. Very entertaining.' - Koeur's Book Reviews 'A great story from a young author who has, I believe, a strong future in the literary world if he can produce more books like this.' - Fiona's Book Reviews

A single father who yearns to be a family man, Logan O'Donnell is determined to create the perfect Christmas for his son, Charlie. The entire O’Donnell clan arrives to spend the holidays in Avalon, a postcard-pretty town on the shores of Willow Lake, a place for the family to reconnect and rediscover the special gifts of the season. One of the guests is a newcomer to Willow Lake–Darcy Fitzgerald. Sharp-witted, independent and intent on guarding her heart, she’s the last person Logan can see himself falling for. And Darcy is convinced that a relationship is the last thing she needs this Christmas. Yet between the snowy silence of the winter woods, and toasty moments by a crackling fire, their two lonely hearts collide. The magic of the season brings them each a gift neither ever expected–a love to last a lifetime.

Vaughn Donnelly's work has taken him to many different villages over the years, and he's never regretted saying goodbye to anyone in them. Until he promises to help Darcy Keegan rescue an orphaned boy from prison. Darcy dreams of a family, a home, a husband… But can Vaughn offer Darcy what she needs?

A FAMILY'S GIFT When they were young, cousins Ella, Rachel and Jo were always together at their family’s lake house. As they grew up, though, they grew apart… until now, as the three must band together to grant a beloved aunt's dying wish: to finish the quilt she began as a gift for her daughter's Christmas wedding. LET IT SNOW Searching for vintage quilting fabric, independent Jo is reunited with the man she thought she’d marry. And proves that sometimes the second time's the charm… YOU BETTER WATCH OUT Ella is desperate when the unfinished quilt goes missing in her care. But a cocky lawyer might just help her find it – and find love. “Nine Ladies Dancing” by Sarah Mayberry – Shy Rachel risks exposing her secret life when she falls for her quilting teacher's seemingly perfect son, in this novella by Janice Kay Johnson. Together, Jo, Ella and Rachel create a Christmas heirloom that's both a wish and promise – of happiness, hope and love everlasting.

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.

ON THE WAY TO A WEDDING… BORROWED BRIDE Dark and devastating P.I. Nick Claiborne's love 'em and leave 'em policy was suddenly in jeopardy. Because his new client, Analise Brewster, not only insisted on "helping" him uncover the mystery of her fiancé's past, her irrepressible spirit tempted Nick to forget his vows to stay single–and hers to wed another…. Spending time with a lively, loving woman usually made Nick want to run–but this time he found himself taking Analise with him. Yet once they'd found Analise's gift for her groom, would Nick be the one walking down the aisle? Long-lost twins discover their perfect grooms!

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?

Fabulous Fathers FOREVER A FATHER When single dad Stone Tyler first met the beautiful and free-spirited Dahlia nine years ago, he was a rough-edged cowboy with no intention of getting married–ever. But it wasn't long before he was asking for Dahlia's hand, certain their love would last forever. But then an unthinkable tragedy struck their blissful home and tore his family apart. Although Stone and Dahlia couldn't deny the love that brought them together, they were suddenly separated by a world of pain and grief. Now Stone had to find a way to save his family and somehow convince his wife a lifetime of love awaited them…. This ranchin' dad would do anything to save his family.