A Family for the Officer Officer Bryce Camden never expected his two-week stint in Comfort Creek, Colorado would mean diaper duty. But that’s exactly what happens when he stays at the local bed and breakfast where Lily Ellison is fostering an abandoned baby girl. Bryce is drawn to the lovely B&B owner, but being a dad is not part of his plans. His troubled past has shown him that he’s not the nurturing type. But he soon finds himself wishing he didn’t have to leave. Because Lily and the baby have taken root in his heart and made him think that maybe he could be a family man after all… Comfort Creek Lawmen: Men in blue with hearts of gold

The Rancher Next Door Single mom Carly Wagner is surprised to learn she’ll have to share ownership of the home she’s inherited with first love—and first heartbreak—Andrew Stephens. The man who fled their tiny western town is back and standing in the way of her dreams to expand her B and B. Now a successful businessman, Andrew has eight weeks to buy Carly out. But Carly's too stubborn to persuade—and too beautiful to ignore. When fire ravages her inn and she and her daughter move in to their shared property, Andrew's in over his head. Time is running out and Andrew must decide: leave and chase another deal…or stay and chase Carly's heart. Rocky Mountain Heroes: Brothers raised by faith, ready for love

Small-Town Secrets For heiress Sophie Mattson, moving to remote Love, Alaska, offers her a chance to find people who care about her—not her wealth. The townsfolk quickly take Sophie under their wing, but it’s handsome newcomer and cook Noah Catalano who inspires dreams of home and family. Sophie fears her ruse may drive a wedge between them…but she doesn’t know the real reason Noah is in Alaska. Hired by Sophie’s ex-fiancé to keep tabs on her, undercover private investigator Noah is falling for his assignment. Is it too late to overcome this double deception, or can Love make a believer of them both? Alaskan Grooms: Meeting their matches in Love, Alaska

Cowboy Dad Single father Seth Austin will do anything for his children. So when he discovers the new housekeeper his grandmother hired for their guest ranch is a former social worker, he plans to keep his family far away from Christina Hunter. Seth once almost lost custody of his beloved kids because of an overzealous social worker. Problem is his children adore Christina and her sweet service dog—and he’s starting to fall for her too. Recuperating from an accident, Christina is determined to slowly ease back into her old life. But the more time she spends with them, the more she realizes that her future might be with the cowboy and his family.

His Family of Convenience For widower and ex-doctor Trace Warren a fresh start in Whisper Creek comes with a catch: to save his home and apothecary shop, Trace must remarry. While making Katherine Fleming his wife is simple enough, he refuses to fall in love again. But keeping his distance from the kind, beautiful woman and the infant she brings with her is dangerously difficult… Katherine promised to protect the baby left in her care, and a marriage of convenience to Trace is the only way to do that. But all too soon, Trace possesses Katherine’s heart, even as he still carefully guards his own. With hopes of turning their arrangement into a true love match, can Katherine convince Trace to forgive himself for his past mistakes and embrace his new family? Stand-In Brides: Mail-order mix-ups turn into happy marriages in a new Wyoming town

Bride by Mail Mail order bride Judith Jones has barely arrived in Pepin, Wisconsin, before she’s whisked away to prepare for her wedding to Asa Brant. Though something about Asa seems so familiar, how do two strangers become husband and wife? Especially when Judith senses Asa’s hidden sorrow. His kindness in helping two young orphans could win her heart…if only he’d open up to her. Determined to start over after four years of brutal war, Asa moved away and sent for a mail order bride. He had no idea the woman answering his ad would be the sister of his former soldier-in-arms. The less he reveals, the fewer painful memories to confront. But Judith’s compassion—and two loving children—might just show them the path to true happiness… Wilderness Brides: Finding love—and a fresh start—on the frontier

Wanted: Husband and Father Stunned that his sister ordered him a mail-order bride, John Wallin insists he’s not the husband Dottie Tyrrell needs. The scholarly logger knows Dottie will make the perfect wife—for some other man. Yet he’s compelled to invite the lovely widow and her infant son stay with his family…but only until she can find her own way. Dreams of true love are for other women. Betrayed by her baby’s father, Dottie just wants a safe home for her precious child. But who could resist a man with John’s quiet strength? When her secret past brings danger to their door, they may yet find this mail-order mix-up to be the perfect mistake… Frontier Bachelors: Bold, rugged—and bound to be grooms

Conveniently Wed Pony Express manager Clayton Young arrives for his new assignment at a Wyoming ranch just in time to save Maggie Fillmore’s ailing baby. The lovely young widow is struggling to care for a ranch, her sister and a newborn, and Clayton plans to pursue medicine—not marriage. Yet Maggie’s dire situation spurs him to offer a match of convenience… Maggie hoped never to rely on any man again, even one as kind as Clayton. But with her late husband’s greedy cousin trying to take away her ranch, she has little choice. And though Maggie worries her union with Clayton might not be enough to save her ranch, she soon sees it could be just what her heart needs. Saddles and Spurs: Daring Pony Express riders risk all for duty—and for love

A Practical Engagement Clare Walsh isn’t too keen on marrying, but it’s the only way for her to keep her family home…and custody of her two younger brothers. So when rancher Noah Livingstone offers a union in name only, Clare reluctantly agrees. Accepting Noah’s strictly practical proposal has an unexpected catch, though—she’s actually falling for him. Though Noah is drawn to vibrant, independent Clare, he knows romantic feelings will only complicate their marriage of convenience. But when secrets from his past threaten Noah’s fragile new family, he must make a difficult choice. Will Noah risk all his dreams to secure a real future with Clare?

RISKY ALLIANCE When her private investigator father is murdered, Bailey Cox stares down danger to find those responsible…and comes face to face with the cop who arrested her six years ago. But to uncover the secret that got her father killed, her former enemy must become her current ally. Franklin Kennedy’s not convinced he can trust the former thief, but he needs her computer hacking skills to crack this case. What the hard-nosed detective doesn't need is a soft spot for Bailey. But when their investigation leads them to international hired guns, Franklin realizes his mistake: he's put Bailey in their crosshairs…and time's running out to save her.

FATAL FAMILY SECRETS Getting shot at on her way to work is only the first shock of law student Hannah McClarnon’s day. The second is when FBI agent Derek Chambers—her first love—reveals the truth about Hannah’s family. Though Hannah was raised by a wealthy Indianapolis couple, her birth father was with the Chicago mafia. And now, convinced she has information against them, they’re hunting her down. Derek’s first big assignment is to protect Hannah, and it’s becoming more personal every minute. He’s never revealed why he left long ago, and he still believes Hannah deserves someone better. But with the enemy in relentless pursuit, he’ll risk his life to be the man she needs—and loves—again.

SHATTERED AMISH SANCTUARY After witnessing the murder of her best friend, Elizabeth Lapp flees to the Amish community she left years ago, hoping the killer won’t find her. But the murderer follows Elizabeth, trapping her in her family’s barn, and she’s sure she won’t survive—until an Amish man rushes to save her. As the attacker runs off, Elizabeth sees her rescuer is none other than Thomas King, the handsome farmer she left behind with her dreams and her heart. Now widowed with two small children, Thomas vows to keep her safe…despite not being ready to forgive her. And suddenly, the man whose love she longs for—but can’t allow herself to accept—is all that’s standing between her and a cold-blooded killer.

Use Ansible to configure your systems, deploy software, and orchestrate advanced IT tasks Key Features * Get familiar with the fundamentals of Ansible 2.7 * Understand how to use Ansible Tower to scale your IT automation * Gain insights into how to develop and test Ansible playbooks Book Description Ansible is an open source automation platform that assists organizations with tasks such as application deployment, orchestration, and task automation. With the release of Ansible 2.7, even complex tasks can be handled much more easily than before. Learning Ansible 2.7 will help you take your first steps toward understanding the fundamentals and practical aspects of Ansible by introducing you to topics such as playbooks, modules, and the installation of Linux, Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), and Windows support. In addition to this, you will focus on various testing strategies, deployment, and orchestration to build on your knowledge. The book will then help you get accustomed to features including cleaner architecture, task blocks, and playbook parsing, which can help you to streamline automation processes. Next, you will learn how to integrate Ansible with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) before gaining insights into the enterprise versions of Ansible, Ansible Tower and Ansible Galaxy. This will help you to use Ansible to interact with different operating systems and improve your working efficiency. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the Ansible skills you need to automate complex tasks for your organization. What you will learn * Create a web server using Ansible * Write a custom module and test it * Deploy playbooks in the production environment * Troubleshoot networks using Ansible * Use Ansible Galaxy and Ansible Tower during deployment * Deploy an application with Ansible on AWS, Azure and DigitalOcean Who this book is for This beginner-level book is for system administrators who want to automate their organization's infrastructure using Ansible 2.7. No prior knowledge of Ansible is required

Harness the power of the latest edition with this in-depth and comprehensive guide to the Swift language Key Features * Fifth edition of this bestselling book, improved and updated to cover the latest version of the Swift 5 programming language * Get to grips with popular and modern design techniques to write easy-to-manage Swift code * Learn how to use core Swift features such as concurrency, generics, and copy-on-write in your code Book Description Over the years, the Mastering Swift book has established itself amongst developers as a popular choice as an in-depth and practical guide to the Swift programming language. The latest edition is fully updated and revised to cover the new version: Swift 5. Inside this book, you'll find the key features of Swift 5 easily explained with complete sets of examples. From the basics of the language to popular features such as concurrency, generics, and memory management, this definitive guide will help you develop your expertise and mastery of the Swift language. Mastering Swift 5, Fifth Edition will give you an in-depth knowledge of some of the most sophisticated elements in Swift development, including protocol extensions, error handling, and closures. It will guide you on how to use and apply them in your own projects. Later, you'll see how to leverage the power of protocol-oriented programming to write flexible and easier-to-manage code. You will also see how to add the copy-on-write feature to your custom value types and how to avoid memory management issues caused by strong reference cycles. What you will learn * Understand core Swift components, including operators, collections, control flows, and functions * Learn how and when to use classes, structures, and enumerations * Understand how to use protocol-oriented design with extensions to write easier-to-manage code * Use design patterns with Swift, to solve commonly occurring design problems * Implement copy-on-write for you custom value types to improve performance * Add concurrency to your applications using Grand Central Dispatch and Operation Queues * Implement generics to write flexible and reusable code Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to delve into the newest version of Swift. If you are a developer and learn best by looking at and working with code, then this book is for you. A basic understanding of Apple's tools would be beneficial but not mandatory. All examples should work on the Linux platform as well.

A beginner's guide to storing, managing, and analyzing data with the updated features of Elastic 7.0 Key Features * Gain access to new features and updates introduced in Elastic Stack 7.0 * Grasp the fundamentals of Elastic Stack including Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana * Explore useful tips for using Elastic Cloud and deploying Elastic Stack in production environments Book Description The Elastic Stack is a powerful combination of tools for techniques such as distributed search, analytics, logging, and visualization of data. Elastic Stack 7.0 encompasses new features and capabilities that will enable you to find unique insights into analytics using these techniques. This book will give you a fundamental understanding of what the stack is all about, and help you use it efficiently to build powerful real-time data processing applications. The first few sections of the book will help you understand how to set up the stack by installing tools, and exploring their basic configurations. You’ll then get up to speed with using Elasticsearch for distributed searching and analytics, Logstash for logging, and Kibana for data visualization. As you work through the book, you will discover the technique of creating custom plugins using Kibana and Beats. This is followed by coverage of the Elastic X-Pack, a useful extension for effective security and monitoring. You’ll also find helpful tips on how to use Elastic Cloud and deploy Elastic Stack in production environments. By the end of this book, you’ll be well versed with the fundamental Elastic Stack functionalities and the role of each component in the stack to solve different data processing problems. What you will learn * Install and configure an Elasticsearch architecture * Solve the full-text search problem with Elasticsearch * Discover powerful analytics capabilities through aggregations using Elasticsearch * Build a data pipeline to transfer data from a variety of sources into Elasticsearch for analysis * Create interactive dashboards for effective storytelling with your data using Kibana * Learn how to secure, monitor and use Elastic Stack’s alerting and reporting capabilities * Take applications to an on-premise or cloud-based production environment with Elastic Stack Who this book is for This book is for entry-level data professionals, software engineers, e-commerce developers, and full-stack developers who want to learn about Elastic Stack and how the real-time processing and search engine works for business analytics and enterprise search applications. Previous experience with Elastic Stack is not required, however knowledge of data warehousing and database concepts will be helpful.

Discover the power of location data to build effective, intelligent data models with Geospatial ecosystems Key Features * Manipulate location-based data and create intelligent geospatial data models * Build effective location recommendation systems used by popular companies such as Uber * A hands-on guide to help you consume spatial data and parallelize GIS operations effectively Book Description Data scientists, who have access to vast data streams, are a bit myopic when it comes to intrinsic and extrinsic location-based data and are missing out on the intelligence it can provide to their models. This book demonstrates effective techniques for using the power of data science and geospatial intelligence to build effective, intelligent data models that make use of location-based data to give useful predictions and analyses. This book begins with a quick overview of the fundamentals of location-based data and how techniques such as Exploratory Data Analysis can be applied to it. We then delve into spatial operations such as computing distances, areas, extents, centroids, buffer polygons, intersecting geometries, geocoding, and more, which adds additional context to location data. Moving ahead, you will learn how to quickly build and deploy a geo-fencing system using Python. Lastly, you will learn how to leverage geospatial analysis techniques in popular recommendation systems such as collaborative filtering and location-based recommendations, and more. By the end of the book, you will be a rockstar when it comes to performing geospatial analysis with ease. What you will learn * Learn how companies now use location data * Set up your Python environment and install Python geospatial packages * Visualize spatial data as graphs * Extract geometry from spatial data * Perform spatial regression from scratch * Build web applications which dynamically references geospatial data Who this book is for Data Scientists who would like to leverage location-based data and want to use location-based intelligence in their data models will find this book useful. This book is also for GIS developers who wish to incorporate data analysis in their projects. Knowledge of Python programming and some basic understanding of data analysis are all you need to get the most out of this book.

Explore the fundamentals of systems programming starting from kernel API and filesystem to network programming and process communications Key Features * Learn how to write Unix and Linux system code in Golang v1.12 * Perform inter-process communication using pipes, message queues, shared memory, and semaphores * Explore modern Go features such as goroutines and channels that facilitate systems programming Book Description System software and applications were largely created using low-level languages such as C or C++. Go is a modern language that combines simplicity, concurrency, and performance, making it a good alternative for building system applications for Linux and macOS. This Go book introduces Unix and systems programming to help you understand the components the OS has to offer, ranging from the kernel API to the filesystem, and familiarize yourself with Go and its specifications. You'll also learn how to optimize input and output operations with files and streams of data, which are useful tools in building pseudo terminal applications. You'll gain insights into how processes communicate with each other, and learn about processes and daemon control using signals, pipes, and exit codes. This book will also enable you to understand how to use network communication using various protocols, including TCP and HTTP. As you advance, you'll focus on Go's best feature-concurrency helping you handle communication with channels and goroutines, other concurrency tools to synchronize shared resources, and the context package to write elegant applications. By the end of this book, you will have learned how to build concurrent system applications using Go What you will learn * Explore concepts of system programming using Go and concurrency * Gain insights into Golang's internals, memory models and allocation * Familiarize yourself with the filesystem and IO streams in general * Handle and control processes and daemons' lifetime via signals and pipes * Communicate with other applications effectively using a network * Use various encoding formats to serialize complex data structures * Become well-versed in concurrency with channels, goroutines, and sync * Use concurrency patterns to build robust and performant system applications Who this book is for If you are a developer who wants to learn system programming with Go, this book is for you. Although no knowledge of Unix and Linux system programming is necessary, intermediate knowledge of Go will help you understand the concepts covered in the book

Delve into the world of Kotlin and learn to build powerful Android and web applications Key Features * Learn the fundamentals of Kotlin to write high-quality code * Test and debug your applications with the different unit testing frameworks in Kotlin * Explore Kotlin's interesting features such as null safety, reflection, and annotations Book Description Kotlin is a general-purpose programming language used for developing cross-platform applications. Complete with a comprehensive introduction and projects covering the full set of Kotlin programming features, this book will take you through the fundamentals of Kotlin and get you up to speed in no time. Learn Kotlin Programming covers the installation, tools, and how to write basic programs in Kotlin. You'll learn how to implement object-oriented programming in Kotlin and easily reuse your program or parts of it. The book explains DSL construction, serialization, null safety aspects, and type parameterization to help you build robust apps. You'll learn how to destructure expressions and write your own. You'll then get to grips with building scalable apps by exploring advanced topics such as testing, concurrency, microservices, coroutines, and Kotlin DSL builders. Furthermore, you'll be introduced to the kotlinx.serialization framework, which is used to persist objects in JSON, Protobuf, and other formats. By the end of this book, you'll be well versed with all the new features in Kotlin and will be able to build robust applications skillfully. What you will learn * Explore the latest Kotlin features in order to write structured and readable object-oriented code * Get to grips with using lambdas and higher-order functions * Write unit tests and integrate Kotlin with Java code * Create real-world apps in Kotlin in the microservices style * Use Kotlin extensions with the Java collections library * Uncover destructuring expressions and find out how to write your own * Understand how Java-nullable code can be integrated with Kotlin features Who this book is for If you’re a beginner or intermediate programmer who wants to learn Kotlin to build applications, this book is for you. You’ll also find this book useful if you’re a Java developer interested in switching to Kotlin.

Take your SAP ABAP skills to the next level by mastering ABAP programming techniques with the help of real-world examples Key Features * Become adept at building interfaces and explore ABAP tools and techniques * Discover the modern functionalities available in the latest version of ABAP * Learn the process of creating stunning HTML5 applications using SAPUI5 Book Description Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) is an established and complex programming language in the IT industry. This book is designed to help you use the latest ABAP techniques and apply legacy constructions using practical examples. You'll start with a quick refresher on language and database concepts, followed by agile techniques for adding custom code to a modern ABAP system. After this, you will get up to speed with the complete ABAP toolset for importing data to and from different environments. Next, you'll learn how to print forms and work with the different ABAP tools for Extensible Markup Language (XML) manipulation. While covering further chapters, you'll gain insights into building stunning UI5 interfaces, in addition to learning how to develop simple apps using the Business Object Processing Framework (BOPF). You will also pick up the technique of handling exceptions and performing testing in ABAP. In the concluding chapters, you can look forward to grasping various techniques for optimizing the performance of programs using a variety of performance analysis tools. By the end of this book, you will have the expertise you need to confidently build maintainable programs in Systems, Applications, and Products (SAP). What you will learn * Create stable and error-free ABAP programs * Leverage new ABAP concepts including object-oriented programming(OOP) and Model-View-Controller (MVC) * Learn to add custom code to your existing SAP program * Speed up your ABAP programs by spotting bottlenecks * Understand techniques such as performance tuning and optimization * Develop modern and beautiful user interfaces (UIs) in an ABAP environment * Build multiple classes with any nesting level Who this book is for This book is for developers who want to learn and use ABAP skills to become an industry expert. Familiarity with object-oriented programming concepts is expected.

Manage Microsoft Azure cloud services that span storage, security, networking, and compute cloud capabilities and ace the AZ-103 Exam Key Features * Master features and concepts pertaining to Azure's Administration services * Gain a deep understanding of various Azure services related to infrastructure, applications, and environments * Gauge yourself by giving mock tests with up-to-date exam questions Book Description Microsoft Azure Administrator – Exam Guide AZ-103 will cover all the exam objectives that will help you earn Microsoft Azure Administrator certification. Whether you want to clear AZ-103 exam or want hands-on experience in administering Azure, this study guide will help you achieve your objective. It covers the latest features and capabilities around configuring, managing, and securing Azure resources. Following Microsoft's AZ-103 exam syllabus, this guide is divided into five modules. The first module talks about how to manage Azure subscriptions and resources. You will be able to configure Azure subscription policies at Azure subscription level and learn how to use Azure policies for resource groups. Later, the book covers techniques related to implementing and managing storage in Azure. You will be able to create and configure backup policies and perform restore operations. The next module will guide you to create, configure, and deploy virtual machines for Windows and Linux. In the last two modules, you will learn about configuring and managing virtual networks and managing identities. The book concludes with effective mock tests along with answers so that you can confidently crack this exam. By the end of this book, you will acquire the skills needed to pass Exam AZ-103. What you will learn * Configure Azure subscription policies and manage resource groups * Monitor activity log by using Log Analytics * Modify and deploy Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates * Protect your data with Azure Site Recovery * Learn how to manage identities in Azure * Monitor and troubleshoot virtual network connectivity * Manage Azure Active Directory Connect, password sync, and password writeback Who this book is for This book is for Azure administrators, systems administrators or anyone preparing for AZ 103 exam and wants to master Azure's various administration features. Readers should have proficiency in working with PowerShell, CLI and other day-to-day Azure administration tasks.

Build Prometheus ecosystems with metric-centric visualization, alerting, and querying Key Features * Integrate Prometheus with Alertmanager and Grafana for building a complete monitoring system * Explore PromQL, Prometheus' functional query language, with easy-to-follow examples * Learn how to deploy Prometheus components using Kubernetes and traditional instances Book Description Prometheus is an open source monitoring system. It provides a modern time series database, a robust query language, several metric visualization possibilities, and a reliable alerting solution for traditional and cloud-native infrastructure. This book covers the fundamental concepts of monitoring and explores Prometheus architecture, its data model, and how metric aggregation works. Multiple test environments are included to help explore different configuration scenarios, such as the use of various exporters and integrations. You’ll delve into PromQL, supported by several examples, and then apply that knowledge to alerting and recording rules, as well as how to test them. After that, alert routing with Alertmanager and creating visualizations with Grafana is thoroughly covered. In addition, this book covers several service discovery mechanisms and even provides an example of how to create your own. Finally, you’ll learn about Prometheus federation, cross-sharding aggregation, and also long-term storage with the help of Thanos. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to implement and scale Prometheus as a full monitoring system on-premises, in cloud environments, in standalone instances, or using container orchestration with Kubernetes. What you will learn * Grasp monitoring fundamentals and implement them using Prometheus * Discover how to extract metrics from common infrastructure services * Find out how to take full advantage of PromQL * Design a highly available, resilient, and scalable Prometheus stack * Explore the power of Kubernetes Prometheus Operator * Understand concepts such as federation and cross-shard aggregation * Unlock seamless global views and long-term retention in cloud-native apps with Thanos Who this book is for If you’re a software developer, cloud administrator, site reliability engineer, DevOps enthusiast or system admin looking to set up a fail-safe monitoring and alerting system for sustaining infrastructure security and performance, this book is for you. Basic networking and infrastructure monitoring knowledge will help you understand the concepts covered in this book.