Putney was born and raised in New York. She attended Syracuse University, earning degrees in English literature and Industrial design. She served as the art editor of The New Internationalist magazine in London and worked as a designer in California before settling in Baltimore, Maryland in 1980 to run her own freelance graphic design business.

After purchasing her first computer for her business, Putney realized that it would make writing very easy. She began work on her first novel, a traditional Regency romance, which sold in one week. Signet liked the novel so much that it offered Putney a three-book contract immediately. In 1987 that first novel, The Diabolical Baron, was published. Since then, she has published twenty-nine books (as of January 2007). Her books have been ranked on the national bestseller lists of the New York Times, USAToday, and Publishers Weekly. The vast majority of her works have been historical romance, although she did write three contemporary romances. She has also begun writing fantasy romance and romantic fantasy as M.J. Putney.

Putney has won the Romance Writers of America RITA Award twice, for Dancing on the Wind and The Rake and the Reformer and has been a RITA finalist nine times. She is on the Romance Writers of America Honor Roll for bestselling authors, and has been awarded two Romantic Times Career Achievement Awards and four Golden Leaf Awards.

Putney lives in Baltimore with her cats. She is not married.

As Mary Jo Putney

Single novels

• Lady of Fortune (1988)
• Uncommon Vows (1991)
• Carousel of Hearts (1992)
• Dearly Beloved (1990)
• The Bargain (1999) (revised as The Would-be Widow (1988))
• Dangerous to Know (2007)

Bride Trilogy

1. The Wild Child (1998)
2. The China Bride (2000)
3. The Bartered Bride (2002)

Circle of Friends Series

1. The Burning Point (2000)
2. The Spiral Path (2002)
3. Twist of Fate (2003)

Davenport Series

1. The Diabolical Baron (1987)
2. The Rake (1998) (revised from The Rake and the Reformer (1989))
3. "Sunshine for the Christmas" in A Regency Christmas II (1990)

Fallen Angels Series

1. Thunder and Roses (1993)
2. Petals in the Storm (1993) (revised from The Controversial Countess (1989))
3. Dancing on the Wind (1994)
4. Angel Rogue (1995) (revised from The Rogue and the Runaway (1990))
5. Shattered Rainbows (1996)
6. River of Fire (1996)
7. One Perfect Rose (1997)

Guardian Series

1. "The Alchemical Marriage" in Irresistible Forces (2004)
2. A Kiss of Fate (2004)
3. Stolen Magic (2005) (as M.J. Putney)
4. A Distant Magic (2006)

Lost Lords Series

1. Loving a Lost Lord (2009)
2. Never Less than a Lady (2010)

Silk Trilogy

1. Silk and Shadows (1991)
2. Silk and Secrets (1992)
3. Veils of Silk (1992)

Stone Saint Series

1. The Marriage Spell (2006)

Collections

• Christmas Revels (2002)

Omnibus in Collaboration

• "The Christmas Cuckoo" in A Regency Christmas (1991) (with Mary Balogh, Sandra Heath, Melinda McRae and Edith Layton)
• "The Christmas Tart" in A Regency Christmas IV (1992) (with Mary Balogh, Marjorie Farrell, Sandra Heath and Emma Lange)
• "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" in Rakes and Rogues (1993) (with Mary Balogh, Melinda McRae, Anita Mills and Maura Seger) reissued in Captured Hearts (1999) (with Mary Balogh, Edith Layton, Patricia Rice and Joan Wolf)
• "The Wedding of the Century" in Promised Brides (1994) (with Kristin James and Julie Tetel) reissued in Bride by Arrangement (2000) (with Merline Lovelace and Gayle Wilson)
• "The Devil's Spawn" in Dashing and Dangerous (1995) (with Mary Balogh, Edith Layton, Melinda McRae and Anita Mills)
• "Goldspun Promises" / "No Brighter Dream" / "Dancing on the Wind" (1995) (with Elizabeth Gregg, Katherine Kingsley)
• "Dangerous Gifts" in Faery Magic (1996) (with Jo Beverley, Karen Harbaugh and Barbara Samuel)
• "The Best Husband Money Can Buy" in Stocking Full of Joy (1997) (with Jill Barnett, Justine Dare, Susan King)
• "Avalon" in In Our Dreams (1998) (with Ruth Glick, Barbara Cummings, Courtney Henke, and Corey McFadden)
• "The Stranger's Familiar" in A Constellation of Cats (2002) (with Andre Norton, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Jody Lynn Nye, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mickey Zucker Reichert, and others)
• "A Dragon's Tale" in Bewitched, Bothered and BeVampyred (2005) (with Gena Showalter, Mary Janice Davidson, Alesia Holliday, Susan Grant, Patricia Rice and Vicki Lewis Thompson)
• "The Dragon and the Dark Knight" in Dragon Lovers (2007) (with Jo Beverley, Karen Harbaugh and Barbara Samuel)