Verdict: A breakneck Chicago crime-boss-and-governor thriller with a morally grey, masculine-of-center heroine and page-turning momentum, undercut by torture scenes many readers found too much, thin characterisation and an ending that stops rather than resolves.
Best for: Readers who want a sapphic action movie more than a romance, who can handle sustained on-page violence and trafficking themes, and who are ready to go straight on to book two for the payoff.
Heat level: ★★★☆☆ (3/5 — our estimate; romance.io has no steam rating for this book)
Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5/5 — a 3.82 Goodreads average across 186 ratings, pulled down by readers who found the violence excessive and the ending abrupt)
Tropes: Butch/femme, criminal and prosecutor, enemies-to-lovers, second chance after a one-night weekend, opposites attract, forced proximity in captivity, morally grey heroine, kidnapping and escape, dual timeline flashbacks, series romance.
Queen of Humboldt by Tagan Shepard is the first book in her two-book Queen of Humboldt series from Bella Books, a 2020 lesbian romantic suspense novel set in Chicago’s Humboldt Park and far beyond it — and the collision at its centre is Marisol Soltero, the nightclub owner who runs the neighbourhood’s underworld, and Governor Sabrina Sloane, the career prosecutor who has put away every criminal she ever chased except her.
It holds a 3.82 average across 186 Goodreads ratings and a 3.66 on StoryGraph from 35 reviews. Two-thirds of the Goodreads ratings are four or five stars, and the praise is close to unanimous on one point: people could not put it down. What splits readers is what the book puts on the page to keep them turning, and where it chooses to stop. Both halves of that split are worth understanding before you start.
What Is Queen of Humboldt About?
Queen of Humboldt is a crime thriller with a romance inside it, not a romance with a little danger added. Bella shelves it as both a lesbian thriller and a lesbian romance, Amazon files the paperback under LGBTQ+ thrillers, and StoryGraph readers tag it dark and adventurous before anything else. That placement matters, because the book’s second half is built around abduction, torture and an international trafficking ring, and readers who came for the romance on the cover are the ones who feel misled.
Marisol is defined by what the streets took from her early: a childhood that left her alone and a life of theft, drugs and territory that kept her alive. Bella’s page has her calling herself a “masculine-of-center badass,” and the publisher files the book under butch/femme. Sabrina assumes she knows exactly who Marisol is — the one criminal who got away. The story runs between a prologue weekend in 2010 and the present ten years later, with flashbacks into Marisol’s past, and that structure is what keeps the relationship from reading as pure instalove.
What Makes This Butch/Femme Romantic Thriller Work
- The momentum: The most consistent praise by a distance. Readers describe finishing it in one sitting, one in about five hours, and “nonstop action” is the phrase that keeps coming back.
- Marisol as antihero: A crime boss with a code. Several readers single out her backstory as the thing that makes her sympathetic, and one compares her to a secretly lovesick Batman shadowing a Harvey Dent who was never disfigured.
- The history between them: A single weekend a decade before the main story gives the second-chance angle real weight, and readers say the flashbacks make the spark believable.
- Opposite sides of the law: The enemies-to-lovers setup is a prosecutor and the person she never managed to convict, which one reader likens to the obsession in Killing Eve.
- Neither lead is a pushover: Readers who liked it note that Sabrina is more than a damsel in distress, even when she is the one being rescued.
Book Synopsis
Ten years ago, a young lawyer and a woman with a club and a reputation spent one weekend together without knowing who the other really was. When they found out, it was over. Sabrina Sloane went on to build her career putting Chicago’s criminals behind bars, first as a prosecutor and then as Governor of Illinois. Marisol Soltero went on to become the Queen of Humboldt, running her corner of the city from a nightclub and staying one step ahead of every attempt to bring her down — including Sabrina’s.
Now word reaches Marisol that someone intends to kill the governor. She could let it happen. The woman who has spent a decade trying to lock her up would be gone, and her own life would get simpler. Instead she steps out of the shadows she has worked hard to keep, and the rescue does not go to plan. Marisol and Sabrina end up in the hands of the same enemy, a long way from home, with nobody coming to get them.
To survive, the governor and the criminal have to trust each other, and neither has any reason to. Sabrina starts to see that Marisol’s life has more layers than any file she ever built on her, and Marisol has to decide how much of her past she is willing to show. The question driving the rest of the book is whether they can get out alive — and whether a weekend neither of them forgot can survive who they turned out to be.
My Review
The engine here is excellent, and it deserves to be said first. A crime boss saving the prosecutor who has spent a decade trying to jail her is a premise with built-in voltage, and Shepard runs it at full speed. The book is short, around 200 pages, and it moves like a film. Almost every reader, including the ones who rated it low, admits they could not stop turning pages.
The second strength is Marisol. The flashbacks into her past are where the book slows down and earns its antihero, showing why she became the person Sabrina wants to convict without excusing it. The weekend in 2010 is a smart choice too: it gives two women on opposite sides of the law a real shared history before the kidnapping throws them together, so the attraction is a return rather than a leap.
Where it struggles is intensity without depth, and this is the dominant complaint rather than my personal gripe. The torture in the captivity section is sustained and graphic, and at least six independent reviewers say it was too much; one tossed and turned trying to read it, one gave up halfway, and another calls it torture porn. Around that sit the secondary problems. Several readers call the characters thin; SBTB’s joint review grades it a C- and sums it up as “lots of style, little substance.” A love scene placed right after days of captivity and injury is the single most repeated specific complaint, with at least five reviewers finding the timing implausible. And the ending is abrupt: readers describe it as feeling like half a story.
One expectation to reset: the blurb reads like a romance with danger, and several readers say it isn’t. It is an action thriller with a romance thread, and it is darker than the cover suggests. If romance is the draw, calibrate for a supporting role; if the thriller is what you want, you may find it better than advertised.
My honest note: A four-star thriller engine carrying a three-star romance. If graphic violence or an unresolved ending will ruin a book for you, skip it. If you want a fast, dark ride with a memorable antihero and are willing to read book two, it delivers.
| Element | In Queen of Humboldt |
|---|---|
| Central relationship | Marisol Soltero & Sabrina Sloane — masculine-of-center crime boss and the governor who prosecuted her world, second-chance enemies-to-lovers |
| Core tropes | Butch/femme, criminal and prosecutor, second chance, forced proximity in captivity, morally grey heroine, kidnapping and escape |
| Setting | Chicago’s Humboldt Park and the Illinois governor’s office, then abroad in captivity; a 2010 prologue and a present ten years on |
| Heat level | 3/5 — estimated; no romance.io steam rating |
| Series | Queen of Humboldt book 1 of 2 — the couple’s story continues directly in Two Knights Tango; not a settled HEA in this volume |
| Content notes | Graphic torture and violence, human trafficking, attempted sexual assault, mentions of rape, murder of a parent in a childhood flashback, murder of a friend, prostitution |
How Dark and Spicy Is Queen of Humboldt?
We put the heat at 3/5, and that is our estimate rather than a database band. romance.io lists the book with only two ratings and no steam level, so the number comes from reader reports. Readers describe a passionate opening weekend and a later love scene, and one wanted more of the heat the start promised. Nobody calls the sex the book’s focus. The Lesbian Review’s write-up is about action, not steam, and I Heart SapphFic does not give it a heat rating either.
The darkness is the real question. The Lesbian Review flags sex trafficking, an on-page attempted rape and visceral torture; SBTB adds a childhood flashback of a mother’s murder and a near-hanging. That is the thing to know in advance. One reader argues the violence is lighter than in mainstream crime thrillers, but most who mention it disagree. For open-door suspense at similar heat, The Killing Room and Escorting the Senator sit at the same level.
Who Should Read This Book?
You’ll likely love it if: you want a sapphic thriller that reads like a 90s action movie, you like a morally grey heroine with a code, you enjoy a second-chance pairing across the law, and you are happy to treat book one as the first half of a two-book story.
You may want to skip it if: graphic torture and trafficking are hard limits, you want character depth over plot, you came for a romance-first book, or you need every volume to end with the couple settled.
In short: a propulsive, violent crime story with a romance riding shotgun, and an ending that sends you to the sequel.
What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)
There is no viral moment behind this book and no fresh push in 2026. Its readership came mostly through Bella Books’ own channels: a cluster of NetGalley and advance reviews around the October 2020 release, a second wave of readers in early 2022 who picked it up ahead of the sequel, and a trickle since. Coverage is modest but real — a positive write-up at The Lesbian Review, a joint C- review at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and a listing at I Heart SapphFic that tags it butch/femme. I found no trade review. The audio edition, narrated by Allie Shae for Tantor, came out on 7 February 2023 and runs 6 hours 39 minutes, which is the most recent way in for new readers.
Prefer audio? Listen to Queen of Humboldt on Libro.fm — the audiobook shop that supports independent bookstores.
Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The pace, first and most consistently — “action-packed” and “nonstop” are the recurring words, and more than one reader says their adrenaline was still up after finishing. Then Marisol: readers call her intriguing, badass and morally grey, and her backstory is the most-praised part of the book’s structure. The flashbacks draw real admiration, though one reader thought there were a couple too many. The film comparisons are a theme of their own — a 90s action movie, Sicario at The Lesbian Review, Killing Eve, Batman. Fans of Shepard’s earlier books note how different this is from her sweeter romances.
What readers argue about and complain about: The violence, above everything. At least six independent reviewers say the torture went too far, and the lowest Goodreads review stopped halfway after calling it pointless. Second: the love scene’s timing, which at least five reviewers found implausible after the captivity. Third: the ending, which readers repeatedly call abrupt or unfinished, with several saying they needed the sequel immediately. Fourth: thin characters, raised by SBTB, The Lesbian Review and several Goodreads readers; SBTB also criticises Marisol as a stereotype of a fiery Latina, a critique I did not see elsewhere. The genuine split is the blurb. Some readers felt misled by it, while others say the darker book they got was better than the one advertised.
The series question everyone should ask first: this is where the house finding departs from some listings. Book one does not deliver a settled happily-ever-after. The Lesbian Review calls the ending an HEA, SBTB calls it happy-for-now, and the sequel’s own description opens with the couple apart for six months after the events of this book. Two Knights Tango (February 2022) averages 3.96 across 80 Goodreads ratings, slightly higher than book one; readers say it is less violent and more of a chess game, and one praises its slow burn. Goodreads lists no third book. If you need the couple settled, plan to read both.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Queen of Humboldt have a happy ending?
Not a settled one. Sources disagree on the label, from HEA to happy-for-now, but many readers call the ending abrupt, and the sequel opens with the couple apart. Their story continues in Two Knights Tango.
Is Queen of Humboldt a butch/femme romance?
The publisher treats it as one. Bella Books tags it butch/femme, and its page has Marisol describing herself as masculine-of-center. I Heart SapphFic also lists it as butch/femme.
How violent is Queen of Humboldt?
Very. Reviewers flag graphic torture, human trafficking, an attempted sexual assault and murder, and at least six readers say the violence was too much for them.
How spicy is Queen of Humboldt?
Around a 3/5 by our estimate. romance.io has no steam rating for it, and readers describe a passionate opening and a later love scene rather than a heat-driven book.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes. Allie Shae narrates the Tantor edition, released in February 2023 and running 6 hours 39 minutes.
Do I need to read the sequel?
If you want the romance resolved, yes. Two Knights Tango picks up six months later with Marisol and Sabrina, and readers who finished book one say they went straight to it.
If You Loved Queen of Humboldt, Read These Next
For another masc-and-femme pairing with a dangerous heroine and people on the run, Those We Run From puts a stud/femme second-chance romance inside a thriller plot at the same heat. If the politician-and-outsider dynamic is what hooked you, Escorting the Senator runs enemies-to-lovers through a political career. And for a one-night stand that turns into opposite sides of a dangerous case, The Killing Room keeps the suspense and gives the romance more room.
For more in this register, browse our butch/femme lesbian romance guide or the full Book Reviews collection.
The Bottom Line
Queen of Humboldt sets out to put a sapphic love story inside a crime thriller, and as a thriller it mostly succeeds. The pace is relentless, Marisol is a memorable antihero, and the decade-old weekend gives the pairing real history. It also leans on graphic torture that drove readers away, sketches its characters lightly, and stops before the romance is resolved. If you want a fast, dark, action-first read and are happy to continue into book two, it is worth your time; if you want a romance first, start somewhere gentler. Check Queen of Humboldt on Amazon →
The Eikna Overall Ranking
On the Eikna scale, Queen of Humboldt ranks as a high-octane butch/femme crime thriller — propulsive and anchored by a strong antihero, held back by excessive violence and an unfinished romance, and best approached as the first half of a two-book story rather than a standalone love story.
The Evidence Scorecard
Overall ★★★★☆ 3.5/5
- ✓ 3.82 average across 186 Goodreads ratings
- ✓ 3.66 on StoryGraph from 35 reviews
- ✓ Violence and abrupt ending drive the low ratings
Romance ★★★☆☆ 3.3/5
- ✓ Decade-old weekend gives real history
- ✓ Opposite sides of the law adds charge
- ✓ Flashbacks make the spark believable
- ✓ Plot crowds the romance; not resolved here
Characters ★★★☆☆ 3.3/5
- ✓ Marisol the most-praised element
- ✓ Morally grey heroine with a code
- ✓ Sabrina more than a damsel
- ✓ Thin characterisation flagged by several reviewers
Writing ★★★★☆ 3.7/5
- ✓ Sharp, propulsive prose praised
- ✓ Short at around 200 pages
- ✓ 75% of StoryGraph readers call it fast-paced
- ✓ One reader flags sentence-level errors
Emotional Impact ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Readers finish breathless and on edge
- ✓ Marisol’s childhood backstory lands
- ✓ Stakes feel lethal throughout
- ✓ Violence overwhelms some readers entirely
Heat Level ★★★☆☆ 3/5
- ✓ No romance.io steam rating, two ratings only
- ✓ Passionate opening weekend on the page
- ✓ Not a heat-driven book
- ✓ Love scene timing widely criticised
Ending ★★★☆☆ 2.9/5
- ✓ Escape plot reaches a conclusion
- ✓ Sets up book two directly
- ✓ Sequel rates higher at 3.96
- ✓ Abrupt; couple not settled in this volume
Re-read Value ★★★★☆ 3.6/5
- ✓ Allie Shae audiobook, 6 hours 39 minutes
- ✓ Sequel sends readers back
- ✓ One fan wanted to restart immediately
- ✓ Torture scenes discourage a second pass
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