Queenpin: A Dangerous Game Review (Ling Walters)

Updated on October 9, 2026

Verdict: A short, plot-heavy Black lesbian crime romance with a strong revenge setup and a cast built for drama, held back by a 95-page length that has to carry a prison release, an affair, a drug-trade comeback and a robbery, and by the fact that no reader has reviewed it.

Best for: Readers who want a fast street-level crime story with two Black women at its centre, an affair with real risk and an ex-wife plotting from behind bars, and who are happy with a novella-length read.

Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — our estimate; the blurb calls it steamy, romance.io lists it with no ratings, and no reader has described the sex scenes)

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — rests on almost no reader evidence: three Amazon ratings averaging 3.9, no Goodreads ratings and no written review anywhere, so this reflects the premise and its length rather than readers)

Tropes: Queenpin heroine, revenge, ex-wife as antagonist, affair with a married best friend, fresh out of prison, drug-trade comeback, loveless marriage, crime and betrayal.

Queenpin: A Dangerous Game is a 95-page Black lesbian crime romance by Ling Walters, self-published on November 5, 2024 and sold as a mafia romance: Akilla “Keys” Kennedy comes home from a five-year federal sentence, falls into an affair with her best friend, who is married to a wealthy hip hop producer, and fights her way back to the top of the drug trade while her gangster ex-wife plans revenge from her own cell.

Almost nobody has written about it. Amazon shows a 3.9 average from three ratings and no written reviews. Goodreads lists the book with no ratings at all. romance.io lists it too, with no ratings and no steam band. Nearly two years after release, there is no reader record to weigh, so this review is built from the blurb, the book’s length and what it promises, with every reader question marked as open.

What Is Queenpin: A Dangerous Game About?

Despite the mafia label, this is a street-level crime story rather than an Italian-family saga: drug trafficking, the Feds, suppliers and debts. That matters, because it changes the texture. The danger comes from people Keys owes money to and people she has betrayed, not from a dynasty or an arranged marriage, and the romance has to survive inside a plot that keeps moving.

Keys is the centre of everything. She went to prison because of her wife’s organisation, left that wife for another woman while inside, and comes out owing loyalty to almost no one. Vanessa, her best friend, is the love interest, and she is married. Kutt, the ex-wife, is the antagonist. The blurb promises twists and suggests that not everything is as it appears, which in a book this short usually means a betrayal from close by.

What Makes This Black Lesbian Crime Romance Work

The setup: A heroine who took a five-year sentence for her wife’s crimes, then left her, gives the revenge plot a real motive on both sides before the first page.
The antagonist: Kutt plotting from behind bars is a good device. She cannot act directly, which leaves room for suspicion about who is acting for her.
Representation: Black lesbian leads in a crime story written from inside the world rather than as tourism is still rare in sapphic romance, and the book is marketed to that readership directly.
Stakes: A robbery that leaves Keys unable to pay a ruthless supplier is a clean, concrete threat that drives the second half.
Pace: At 95 pages the book cannot afford to wait, and the blurb lays out a story that moves from prison release to affair to comeback to crisis in quick order.

Book Synopsis

Akilla Kennedy, known as Keys, did five years because her wife’s drug operation fell to a federal case. Her wife, Kutt, is a notorious gangster, and Keys took the sentence. Somewhere in those five years Keys decided she was done with Kutt and moved on to someone else. Kutt has not forgiven her.

On release, Keys moves in with her best friend Vanessa, who is stuck in a cold marriage to King Cash, a rich hip hop producer. Old feelings do not stay buried, and Keys and Vanessa start an affair under Cash’s roof. At the same time Keys wants back into the only business she knows. Kutt’s influence still runs through it, so Keys finds a new supplier, Drop, and starts climbing again on her own terms.

Then she is robbed. The product and the money are gone, the debt to Drop is still due, and Drop is not a man who extends credit. Keys has to find out who took from her before the debt is collected another way, and with Kutt watching from prison and Cash none the wiser about his wife, the list of people with a reason to want her ruined is longer than she would like.

My Review

The premise is the best thing here. A heroine coming out of prison for someone else’s crimes, an ex with a grievance and a reach that extends beyond her cell, and a new romance that is itself a betrayal: that is a tight triangle of motive, and it gives a short crime story more to work with than most.

The second strength is focus on its readership. This is unapologetically a Black lesbian crime romance, set among drug suppliers, producers and people coming home from federal time, and it does not sand those edges off for a general audience. Readers looking for exactly that have far fewer options than readers looking for Italian mafia heiresses.

Where it is likely to struggle is length, and that is an inference rather than a reader report. The blurb describes a prison release, an affair, a business comeback, a robbery, a debt crisis and a hidden betrayal. In 95 pages that leaves little room for the romance itself to develop, and the affair has to compete for space with the crime plot. We cannot tell you whether it manages, because nobody who has read it has said.

The expectation to reset is the word “romance.” The love story here begins as an affair with a married woman, inside a book that is at least as interested in the drug trade as in the relationship. If you came for a crime story with a romance thread, that is what is promised. If you came for a romance with a crime backdrop, the balance may feel wrong. Whether it ends happily is not stated anywhere.

My honest note: A strong revenge setup with a cast built for drama, squeezed into a novella and untested by readers. If you want a quick Black lesbian crime story, it is short enough to be a low-risk try; if you want a fully developed romance, the length is against it.

Element	In Queenpin: A Dangerous Game
Central relationship	Keys Kennedy & Vanessa — an ex-con and her married best friend
Core tropes	Queenpin heroine, revenge, ex-wife antagonist, affair, fresh out of prison, drug-trade comeback
Setting	The contemporary drug trade, after a federal prison sentence
Heat level	3/5 — our estimate; marketed as steamy
Series	None listed; 95 pages
Content notes	Infidelity, drug trafficking, robbery and debt to a violent supplier, revenge plotting; no reader has listed specific warnings

How Spicy Is Queenpin: A Dangerous Game?

We estimate a 3 out of 5 and mark it unverified. The blurb calls the book a steamy Black lesbian mafia romance and says the affair heats up, but romance.io has no ratings or steam band for it, and no reader has described the sex scenes. In a 95-page book with this much plot, on-page scenes are likely to be present but limited; that is our judgement, not a report.

The element worth knowing in advance is the affair. Vanessa is married when the romance starts, and the relationship is a betrayal of her husband, who also happens to be the man whose house Keys is living in. For a mafia romance with more reader evidence behind its heat, see My Mafia Princess; for a crime romance where a second chance drives the plot, Soft On Her.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want Black lesbian leads in a street-level crime story, a revenge plot with an ex-wife pulling strings from prison, a fast novella-length read, and an affair with real stakes.

You may want to skip it if: infidelity is a dealbreaker, you want a fully developed romance rather than a crime plot with a love story attached, you need a guaranteed happy ending, or you rely on reader reviews before you buy.

In short: a quick, plot-first crime romance with no reader record yet.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

Nothing in writing. Queenpin: A Dangerous Game has three ratings on Amazon, averaging 3.9, and no written reviews there. Goodreads lists it with no ratings. romance.io lists it with no ratings and only basic tags: lesbian romance, mafia and queer romance. There is no Reddit discussion, no trade review and no blog coverage that we could find. Its Amazon rank sat beyond a million in the Kindle store when we checked. Ling Walters’ wider catalogue on romance.io is mostly short lesbian erotica collections, which suggests this is one of the author’s few longer plotted stories, though it is still a novella.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): We cannot say. No reader has explained what they liked, and three ratings with a 3.9 average is not enough to say that readers love it at all.

What readers argue about and complain about: We cannot say that either. With no written reviews anywhere, any claim about pacing, prose, heat or the twist would be invention. The 3.9 average implies at least one rating below four stars, but it came with no explanation.

The standalone question worth asking first: No series is listed on Amazon, Goodreads or romance.io, and the blurb describes a self-contained crime story. The ending is not described anywhere, so whether Keys and Vanessa end up together, or survive, is an open question.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Queenpin: A Dangerous Game a standalone?

It appears to be. No series is listed on Amazon, Goodreads or romance.io, and the blurb describes a complete story.

How spicy is Queenpin: A Dangerous Game?

Our estimate is 3 out of 5. The blurb calls it steamy, but romance.io has no steam rating and no reader has described the sex scenes.

How long is Queenpin: A Dangerous Game?

95 pages according to Amazon, which makes it a novella. It was published on November 5, 2024.

Is there cheating in Queenpin: A Dangerous Game?

Yes. The romance is an affair between Keys and her best friend Vanessa, who is married to a hip hop producer, and Keys left her own wife while in prison.

Does Queenpin: A Dangerous Game have a happy ending?

Unverified. The blurb ends on the question of whether Keys and Vanessa will survive the fallout of a robbery, and no reader has described the ending.

If You Loved Queenpin: A Dangerous Game, Read These Next

For a crime-family romance with more pages and more readers, try The Blackburns: Emma, a family saga about a crime boss and the wife she took. For a possessive mafia heir and a guaranteed HEA, read My Mafia Princess. For a short second-chance crime romance, Soft On Her. More in our Black lesbian books guide, our sapphic mafia romance list and across our book reviews.

The Bottom Line

Queenpin: A Dangerous Game sets out to tell a revenge-and-comeback crime story with a forbidden romance at its heart. The setup is strong, the antagonist is well placed and the book speaks directly to readers who want Black lesbian leads in this world. But it has 95 pages for a plot that would fill three hundred, the romance begins as an affair, and there is no reader evidence at all on how any of it plays out. It is worth it for readers who want a quick crime story and do not need reviews to take a chance. Check Queenpin: A Dangerous Game on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Queenpin: A Dangerous Game ranks as an untested indie Black lesbian crime novella — a strong revenge setup, limited by its length and a complete absence of reader reviews, and best approached as a quick plot-driven read rather than a slow-built romance.