It's not name drops with the book, it's just readability for me. Perhaps my reading level is different from the target audience. I agree with anything that gets people reading. Recently my sister caught Star Trek, before that it was Twilight, Percy Jackson, and bad fan fiction. Her reading of the few Trek novels I kept has opened her eyes. Then again Andrew J Robinson's books are in a league of their own.
For every Monster High book you read balance it out with something else that's considered a 'classic', Oz, Alice, Gulliver, anything. You'd never believe how good Gulliver is until you read it.
I paid all of $40 for my Spectra and have Abbey pre ordered at a similar price. After a good hard month of being on a Spectra search, and the driving to the stores etc, I decided to hell with it and pay. Of course I had some of my book store profits to help offset, it all goes back in to dolls, but I didn't like the person I was becoming during the search. All part of the what's it worth to me calculation. And keep an eye on Amazon for the clothes. Day at the Maul is still just $15.