Here's one writer's opinion on why smart women read romance novels. Mine's slightly different, but the author covers many of my beliefs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-browning-walker/romance-novels-smart-women_b_1660308.html
As for women with Ph.D.s writing romance novels, I can add three more: Eloisa James, Katherine Ashe, and me. Most romance-writing Ph.D.s have degrees in literature or history, however, not engineering. Ah well.
