Reviewed by Ro
TITLE: Revenge Mishap
SERIES: Revenge Club #2
AUTHOR: Jax Calder
PUBLISHER:
LENGTH: 394 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 8, 2026
BLURB: Rule #2 of Revenge Club: Don’t fall for your target’s brother.
LEO
I’m Leo Brennan. Tech consultant. Negotiator of billion-dollar deals.
Master of the corporate death stare.
And I’m currently wearing a sparkly pink unicorn onesie with a
light-up horn while screaming “_I believe in magic_!” at a roomful
of sugar-crazed six-year-olds.
How did I get here? I tried to get revenge on my nemesis with a
syrup-related “accident” at a restaurant. Except, I hit his
lookalike brother instead. On his birthday. And broke his ankle.
Now I’m making amends by playing nursemaid to him and helping him out
with his jobs, which includes dog walking and becoming Sparkle
McHornface, the sidekick to a children’s entertainer called Captain
Giggles.
The worst part? I’m starting to actually like the guy. And he has no
idea the real reason why he’s on crutches.
ARCHIE
Oh, I definitely know.
The handsome stranger who “accidentally” baptized me in maple syrup
thinks he’s so subtle. But I’ve figured out his connection to my
estranged brother, and I also know something else.
Guilt is a powerful motivator.
And watching this grumpy tech millionaire wrestle with drooling dogs and
declare himself a “pretty, pretty unicorn” to a room full of
six-year-olds? That’s entertainment I can’t pass up.
But somewhere between his disastrous balloon animals and surprisingly
tender moments, something else is going on. I’m falling for the real Leo
behind the corporate armor.
Which is dangerous because I’m currently hiding my own secrets.
And the last thing I need is someone unraveling them.
The Revenge Mishap _is what happens when revenge goes sideways, grumpy
meets sunshine, and two men discover that sometimes the messiest
mistakes lead to the sweetest love.
REVIEW: This is the second in the Revenge Club series that started with tech wizard Andrew. Andrew’s business partner and really great friend is Leo. Leo was there when Andrew started NovaCore and when Andrew sold it for a huge bucket of money Leo got part and then went out and built a hugely successful consultancy firm. Leo had a rough childhood and so has worked incredibly hard to get to where he is. He had a coworker he looked up to when he first started out, Vaughn, who ended up screwing him over by stealing his idea and presenting it as his own. “I had the option of an IP lawsuit I couldn’t afford or a life lesson about not trusting too easily. I chose the life lesson.” Yes, this allowed Leo to end up leaving there and going in with Andrew, but for eight years it is something that has stuck with him. When Leo sees an opportunity for revenge in the world’s worst idea of a restaurant (even though he was the voice of reason when Andrew was planning revenge), he takes it. Except it not only goes farther than he thought and not only does the revenge cause an epic mess and a broken ankle, but it’s not even Vaughn. It’s his little brother, Archie. Whoops.
Archie really is brilliant sunshine personified, even though he also has childhood baggage. “Archie starts laughing…This birthday keeps getting better and better, he wheezes”. Leo the incredibly wealthy consultant feels so guilty. He’s ready to throw money at the problem until Archie says those words. “You can’t solve all my problems by throwing money at them”. It wouldn’t have hit so hard but it’s the same thing his sister said to him, because he doesn’t show up at family gatherings, he throws money at it.
Archie makes the connection between Leo and Vaughn quickly. There is some bad history with Vaugh and Archie, so it hits a bit. I admit I lost a little liking for Archie when he continued to find ways to humiliate Leo. “Actually I thought long and hard about what kind of costume would cause Leo optimal mortification and settled on this.” At first, okay. But as they got to know each other, he kept doing it and didn’t tell Leo he knew about the Vaughn connection. So that made me squirm a little.
But the humiliation turns into pranks on both of them as they navigate Archie’s jobs as a dog walker and Captain Giggles. There is so much more to Archie than it appears, but he’s learned to hide it. “The thing you said to him – that he was too much – that’s been destroying him. He’d built this entire personality around making himself smaller, so no one else walks away.” It was heartbreaking because you do see it happen. And Leo, too. Archie sees him, sees what he tries to take care of. “Families are complicated. You can love people and still not be able to save them from themselves.” Isn’t that the truth.
There’s a fake dating aspect of this that I didn’t love, mainly because I felt it was unnecessary. But it gave the two the push to become closer, so that worked. As the pranks become less, the real Archie and Leo become more. I was just waiting for the shoe to drop and Archie to admit he knew Leo did it on purpose and find out what Vaughn had done. There is even a part when Archie thinks he doesn’t want to know, because now he knows Leo isn’t petty. So whatever Vaughn did, it was bad.
Archie and Leo has been through so much already. Leo has a solid friend in Andrew, and then again in Justin. Archie keeps his friends, Billy and Jayme (who were present for the infamous ankle breaking) at arm’s length, so they don’t really know him for much of this. We get to see the acceptance of everyone, which I appreciated.
I loved seeing Andrew and Justin again; they are so lovely. Definitely seems Gus is the next book, revenge on being catfished.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Amazon
