is an American best-selling author of contemporary and historical romance novels. She has successfully published a number of books, with several of them made into movies. Twelve of her books have been New York Times bestsellers, and Spencer was inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame in 1988. She retired from writing in 1997.

Spencer didn't begin her first novel until she was in her thirties, working as a teacher's aide at Osseo Junior High School, she had read "The Flame and The Flower" by the bestselling author Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, which gave her the idea to become a novelist.