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Stella Cameron pens a seductive tale of passion and intrigue, and takes readers back to 7 Mayfair Square, an elegant town house, during the glittering whirl of a London season. Here, with a little help from a most unusual matchmaker, anyting is possible—even unlikely love between a nobleman and a confounding parson's daughter...

What Meg Smiles lacks in wealth, she more than makes up for in audacity and determination, both quickly harnessed when Jean-Marc, Count Etranger, and his sister take up residence across the square. Now gainfully employed as companion to the count's madcap sister, Meg discovers it is not her charge who occupies her thoughts, but the girl's enigmatic older brother.

When Meg becomes the victim of a series of strange accidents, Jean-Marc finds his austere world turned upside down. And when it becomes alarmingly clear that Meg's very life is in danger, Jean-Marc's desire for this unsuitable but enchanting woman overcomes his sense of propriety. He vows to ensure her safety, even if it means keeping her close to him, day and night.

440 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 2000

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About the author

Stella Cameron

106 books420 followers
Stella Cameron is a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author. With over fourteen million copies of her books in print, Cameron is now turning her pen to mysteries and independently publishing COLD, Introducing Alex Duggins. She draws on her English background for this new, already critically acclaimed mystery series. Atmospheric, deeply character and relationship driven, COLD reveals the power of old secrets to twist the present. Cameron’s reputation for using her backgrounds to add tension and allure to her stories is heightened again.

Cameron is the recipient of the Pacific Northwest Achievement Award for distinguished professional achievement and for enhancing the stature of the Northwest Literary community. She lives in Washington with her husband Jerry, her Papillon Millie, black cat Zipper, and a cheeky little tabby named Jack.

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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Sarah.
87 reviews46 followers
March 5, 2009
The premise of this is a little weird. In the 18th century, this architect built a mansion in London, and it passed to his son’s wife and his grandson when he died, except the grandson is the son’s wife nephew. (I think. It got confusing.) They hit hard times, and are forced to take in boarders/tenants into the mansion, which the ghost of the architect is pissed about. His one goal of the afterlife is to get all of the tenants out of his mansion, and maybe his grandson and daughter-in-law, too. They’re utter failures in his eyes, seeing as they’ve allowed interlopers into his precious mansion.

This is apparently the second book in the series, which doesn’t really show, since there’s so much exposition given. Parts of the story are told in first person by the architect-ghost, such as the prologue. The prologue’s OK, but the later sections in his voice I feel slow down the story. I didn’t really enjoy them.

The basic plot is that there are these sisters living in the mansion, and they have hit upon hard times. Their father and mother are both dead, and the house they had been living in had gone to a male cousin because of the way it was entailed. (That’s the end of the P&P similarities, though.) Sibyl is very calm and sweet and retiring but Meg … Meg is different. Meg practices “abstracted thinking”, which I gather is meditation/yoga, so she frequently falls into trances to avoid difficult situations.

Things are quite desperate financially for Meg and Sibyl Smiles, and when a “French” prince moves in on the street, so that his sister might snare a titled English lord during the London Season, Meg has two goals. 1) Become the companion (governess, sorta-kinda) of his sister, and 2) become the prince’s wife or, barring that, his mistress. Financial security will soon be hers!

The hero’s name is Jean-Marc, Count Etranger, and he is the illegitimate son of the king of a fictional country between France and Italy. So he is foreign and Mediterranean. Ooh, aah. And he also feels that England is his spiritual home, as his countrymen do not have the same English efficiency and practicality and blah blah. It was a bit nationalistic, really, and I kind of tuned it out. Rest assured that his accent is charming, but his English is flawless. His big problem is that his father has decided to make him the heir to the throne of Mont Nuages (the minuscule French/Italian country)

The first half of this book is a fairly normal and typical Regency romance, except for the whole meditation bit on the part of Meg. Then it gets weird. There’s this costume ball to introduce the prince’s sister to Society, which is weird, because how would you introduce someone to Society when she’s wearing a mask and everyone is supposed to be anonymous? Also, during the course of the night, the hero gets drunk and the heroine is sexually and physically assaulted by a masked man. (The hero’s drunkenness has nothing to do with the assault; it’s not through negligence on his part.) She enters the ballroom, where the hero is stretched out drunkenly on a sofa, for some reason, and the hero discovers the assault, scoops her up in his arms, and deposits her in his bed, where she’ll be safe. And then they have sex.

Wait, what? She was just sexually assaulted and less than an hour later she’s ready to have sex with anyone? Not cool, authorperson. Not cool.

It all culminates in a Three Stooges scene, where no fewer than five people have pistols drawn on each other in an inn room, and a guy throws himself out the window to his death rather than being shipped back to Mont Nuages for criminal charges. I like to think he did it because things were just getting too silly.

On top of all that, with the introduction of the costume ball, the book stops feeling like a Regency and starts feeling like a crack fest. There are really too many characters and the plot is cluttered. The book is about 150 pages too long. It’s 440 pages as is, and could have easily been about 350 with better writing and plot.

So, if you’re bound and determined to read it, read to about chapter 23 or 24 (page 275-ish), and then make up your own ending. Really. I like to think that Jean-Marc proposed to Meg, there were fireworks, her sister married his footman who was really a secret agent of the crown and a nobleman, and Jean-Marc and Meg became King Jean-Marc and Queen Margaret of Mont Nuages, while Sibyl and Viscount Verbeux bought the Smiles family home. Everything was sunshine and lollipops and wild copulating after dark. Maybe in the afternoon if the mood took them. They were happy, and the incredibly annoying architect-ghost fucked right off. THE END
Profile Image for Desi.
2,667 reviews85 followers
October 25, 2017
Leído en Abril 2011

EL EMBRUJO DE SU SONRISA -02 SERIE MAYFAIR SQUARE

Meg Smiles no tenía fortuna, pero estaba decidida a conseguirla. Empleada como institutriz de la hermana de un noble, Meg descubrió que estaba más interesada en el enigmático hermano mayor de su alumna que en su trabajo.
Al ver cómo la vida de Meg peligraba, a raíz de una serie de extraños accidentes, Jean-Marc , el conde Etranger juró hacer lo necesario para protegerla, aunque para ello tuviera que mantenerla a su lado día y noche...
Profile Image for Isis Ray-sisco.
753 reviews
September 17, 2020
Meh...I could take it or leave it. It wasn’t great it wasn’t bad. It just seemed like there was more to the story. I felt like I was dropped in the middle of the story with no back story or other information. I have not read anything by this author before so I am not sure I will again. I might give her another try sometime in the future but we will see.
Profile Image for Suzanne.
48 reviews
April 27, 2020
When I first read it, I was a bit unexpected a bit and didn't understand it. But then I kept reading and it was intriguing at least to say. I wanted a happy ending and got it. I really loved it and I got lost in it. I was totally engrossed in this book and now I am hooked on this series.
71 reviews1 follower
April 4, 2018
silly book nearly didnt finish it.
121 reviews
February 14, 2025
Liked this book better than the first one in the series.
Not a romance novel fan unless there is a good story and I like the old time English settings.
Profile Image for Mia.
67 reviews31 followers
January 12, 2017
Some stupid ghost story disrupting the middle-class lady-porn.
Profile Image for VaultOfBooks.
487 reviews104 followers
September 8, 2012
By Stella Cameron. #2 in Mayfair Square Series. Grade: D
The reason I’d picked up this novel was because of the praise I’d heard of the author. Amanda Quick called her “Sensational!” and so did a few of my other friends. After finishing All Smiles, I seriously wonder why.
When their father, a rural vicar dies, sisters Meg and Sybil Smiles move to London’s 7 Mayfair Square, home of an unhappy ghost, Sir Spivey. The spirit plans to force the two sibling out of his home by matchmaking the outgoing Meg with a nearby resident.
Meg realizes that the sisters have a financial problem. She applies for employment as a companion to seventeen-year-old Princess Desiree of Mont-Nuages, a tiny country on the Italy-France border. Meg’s plan is to net a wealthy spouse while serving as a guide to Desiree. Meg needs to persuade Desiree’s older stepbrother Jean-Marc, Count Etranger that she can do the job. Surprisingly, Jean-Marc hires Meg. As Meg works closely with Desiree, she and Jean-Marc fall in love. However, he is the heir to the throne and she would never suit as his queen. Then again, his uncle plans to destroy the only contender to being the next monarch of Mont-Nuages even if it means killing Meg.

Maybe I am just getting tired of reading one romance novel after the other, who basically have the same plot. Stella Cameron offers a little intrigue when she introduces a ghost Sir Septimus Spivey, the matchmaker which unites Meg and Jean-Marc, although unintentionally. He has made it his goal to rid his ancestral home in Mayfair Square of its lodgers, one of whom is Meg.
In the prequel to this novel, Spivey’s identity is not fully revealed, and proved a little confusing.
I found his narration funny at times, but mostly, the prose didn’t appeal to me. Instead of the dry wit I am partial towards, it seemed like the author was trying too hard to be funny.
I disliked Count Etranger immensely. He was overbearing, arrogant, selfish, foul-tempered, and autocratic. I found it incredibly hard to believe that Meg Smiles’ had any difficulty in deciding if she should be Jean-Marc’s mistress after what she did with him (and to him) in his bedroom the first day she met him. I found that scene in poor taste since it was so soon in their acquaintance. Jean-Marc seemed to know how to say what Meg wanted to hear. For a man who wanted to coax her into being his mistress (because she wasn’t socially acceptable as a wife for him) he did a poor job, even shouting at her in front of people on one occasion.
The plot, too, goes on endlessly and the suspense is not very thrilling. After the first 300 pages, I kept wishing it would end so that I could pick up a better novel. I am someone who almost always completes all novels she starts, but this time, I seriously considered dropping it.
The secondary characters, too, fail in adding flair to the story.
All in all, I would call it an average regency romance but pick it up only if you’re very very desperate.


Originally reviewed at www.vaultofbooks.com
Profile Image for Emily.
805 reviews121 followers
March 9, 2011
All Smiles is the second in Cameron’s Mayfair Square series. Cameron deftly combines a romantic tale with not one but two separate plots of intrigue upon the main characters. Meg Smiles is a young lady who has found herself in somewhat dire financial straits and when she hears of a Princess moving in across the square who may need a companion for the London Season, she petitions the Princess’ brother, Jean-Marc, Count Etranger to obtain the position. She does not count on falling in love with the Count.
Another featured character is the ghost of Sir Septimus Spivey who has made it his goal to rid his ancestral home in Mayfair Square of its lodgers, one of whom is Meg. In the prequel to this novel, Spivey’s identity is not fully revealed, and proved a little confusing. In this installment, we are treated to more information about Sir Spivey and more insight into his goals and plots. The author uses Spivey to address the reader and engage her in his scheme, and Spivey refers to the author herself as ‘that damnable scribbler.’ I’m not sure what Cameron is trying to accomplish by employing this convention, as no reader would be convinced either that the tale is somehow true, or that she had any control over how the events would unfold. It’s annoying, but able to be overlooked in order to enjoy the rest of the story.
Cameron’s secondary characters bring much enjoyment to the tale, and as we know there are several more books to come in which other residents of Number 7 Mayfair Square are to be married off (and effectively removed from Number 7 if Spivey has his way), it is interesting to guess who will become involved with whom in books to come.
As with the previous novel in this series, who is a ‘good guy’ and who is a ‘bad guy’ is not readily apparent, and there are some quite surprising revelations towards the end.
Also, the sexual encounters between the main characters (and a couple of secondary characters) are quite steamy and well written.
I would recommend this book to any fan of Regency Romance novels.
Profile Image for Falina.
555 reviews19 followers
March 18, 2013
I'm debating whether or not to review this book, because I did not finish it. I fully intended to plow through to the very end, despite the fact I wasn't enjoying it, for the sake of a full and and fair review. However, on page 285, I realized I had at least another 150 pages to go, and I gave up.

I don't think it's a bad book, exactly. I think it just might not be my type. I hate the way it's written, and I especially hate the dialogue. It is not believable (cumbersome and overly complex, with what some people may call the "Dawson's Creek Effect": as in, nobody really talks like that). Information the reader needs in order to understand the narrative is included in ways I consider amateur and cringe-worthy. The relationship is too open, too soon -- there is little angst in the first 2/3 of the book, and while I expect there may be some in the last third, I generally prefer the opposite (angst first, happy resolution at the very end). Overall, I didn't find the book dark enough or powerful enough to really capture my emotions. Then there is the matter of a ghost named Spivey that narrates some mini-chapters, which quickly became unbearable and warranted skipping, and the fact that All Smiles is a terrible pun on the surname of the heroine (Meg Smiles). I read this book in April and I'm still cringing at the memory of it as I write this. No more Stella Cameron for me, until I have reason to believe that she explores darker themes in her other novels. Also, I'm also a little disappointed in Amanda Quick a.k.a. Jayne Ann Krentz for writing such a glowing review of such a lackluster book. But perhaps that is only more proof that for the right person, this could be good.
Profile Image for Adriana Fogaça.
560 reviews6 followers
July 14, 2013
Mayfair Square 2/5
Um Conde Para Meg
Stella Cameron
BestSeller 28
2011

A estória é uma delícia em todos os sentidos.

Meg é uma graça e o Conde é uma coisa...

adoro o danado. Queria um desse só pra mim.

Há varias cenas hots entre Meg e o Conde, o que me surpreendeu...

tenho o péssimo habito de ler um romance histórico com muita desconfiança. Não consigo me lembrar o que me levou a sempre torcer o nariz para eles, deve ser algum trauma, mas não consigo me lembrar o motivo.

O importante é que desse romance histórico eu adorei!!

Sem contar que há inúmeros personagens interessantes. Até mesmo um fantasma, que surpreendentemente tenta, com a maior falta de tato, intervir na estória, mas não consegui muita coisa.

Como disse a princípio é uma delicia...

RECOMENDADÍSSIMO!!!!!!!!

ADORO!!!!!!
Profile Image for Suvi.
134 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2009
Don't know if it was the translation or what, but the text just wasn't all that fluent. And Spivey is useless, don't understand why he's there to begin with. o_O Otherwise the story would've been okay.
Profile Image for Melanie.
75 reviews2 followers
August 6, 2011
Not the best book I've ever read. I did not like the heroin which sucks.
Profile Image for Tiina.
56 reviews
August 5, 2014
Jane Austen-tunnelma oli ihan ok, mutta puhuvan aaveen välihuomautukset eivät oikein uponneet...
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

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