Port Royal by Linda Chaikin

Linda Chaikin is an author who believes that more is always better than less.
So, we have m o r e :

• more characters... even if they never say anything. Bring them on! Give them a long complicated backstory! Then, have them do nothing. Or kill them off before they have a chance to talk.
• more complex family relationships... seriously, Dutch Bingo ladies will get confused. Everyone is related by blood or marriage to everyone else.
• more descriptive words. Check out this sentence... "Along a narrow, cobbled street, still retaining heat from the day's sun, a tall-storied house with its high windows screened in alabaster stared down on a sun-baked courtyard, ancient with tales of Spain." The importance of that house? none. the street? none. the courtyard? none. But wasn't that sentence f a n c y ? !
• more unbelievable. Take a naive, good-hearted 16 year old Christian girl. Then make lots of crazy things happen to her because she makes foolish, impulsive choices or is misled by others. Tell us nice thoughts what she thinks, even if all her words and actions contradict that.
• more plot twists. Even if they are unneccessary or implausible.

I went on-line and did some checking of reviews on this one to find that all kinds of ordinary Christian woman LOVE this book (and to a lesser extent books #2 and #3 of this series). On the up side, I have no theological debates with this book. I think I would have like Mattias (especially if Chaikin allowed him more than 2 lines at a death bed appearance. Seriously -and this is a main character!) as he served as an excellent example of living a Christian life with study, prayer and service to others.

Anyone read anything by Linda Chaikin before? What did you think?