Mary Bly was born on 1964 in Minnesota, U.S.A. She graduated from Harvard University, obtained a M.Phil. from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale University. Now she is a professor of English Literature at Fordham University and also writes best-selling Regency romance novels under the pen name Eloisa James. She has had one New York Times bestseller and eight USAToday bestsellers. Her novels have since been translated into 9 languages and have become bestsellers in Holland and Spain.

Mary met Alessandro Vettori, an Italian *cavaliere* (knight) at Yale. They married and had a son and a daughter, they usually live in New Jersey, but they spend summers in Tuscany visiting Vettori's family.