Mary Jo Putney was born in Upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition for which there is no known cure.  After earning degrees in English Literature and Industrial Design at Syracuse University, she did various forms of design work in California and England before inertia took over in Baltimore, Maryland, where she has lived very comfortably ever since.
Since 1987, Mary Jo has published over forty books and counting.
 Her stories are noted for psychological depth and unusual subject matter such as alcoholism, death and dying, and domestic abuse.  She has made all of the national bestseller lists including theNew York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Seven of her books have been named among the year’s top five romances by Library Journal, while three were listed in the Top Ten Romances of the year by Booklist, published by the American Library Association.