Status Updates From A Net for Small Fishes

Why do historical novelists feel the need to force a simile into every sentence? 'The servant led the way as if into battle' - erm, no, he's simply lighting the way to a bedchamber; 'I twisted my head about like a pigeon' - and you expect me to bond with you for hundreds of pages? 'the Countess, her face glistening, hard as a sugar sculpture' - oh stop with the over-writing! We all know what a hard face looks like.