The two writers are very similar. Both writers suffer from adjectivitis. The wind is confused, a bush is unnatural, fingers are gnarled, fists are bloodied, eyes are blazing, etc. Both writer's chararacters do not know what it is like to have a calm moment. They are either in total ecstasy or deep in the doldrums.
Characters are too good to be true or so bad that they are laughable.
A lot of the women characters have rather odd names - Marelda and Lierin in this book and Capitola in Mrs. Southworth's The Hidden Hand . Quicker than you can say Blackbeard, pirates attack the boat and Lierin is pitched overboard and sinks. Later, a madhouse burns down and Ashton in going to see what happens runs into a woman who looks exactly like Lierin. Lieren has flashes of something horrible happening, but she and Ashton soon bond and fall deeply in love. Amid much stress, angst and purple prose - the truth finally comes out.