Brave and clever young Masika, the daughter of a diplomat and niece of an emperor, has discovered a pair of ex-gods in a secret dungeon below the Fell Citadel. She promises to return them home, only to be thwarted by the king of the gods himself-High King Oldam of the Alir. So Masika takes matters into her own hands and sets off to find a way to bring her new friends to their home despite the high king's wishes. But a deal with a very questionable imp painted on a playing card in a seedy tavern, sets the trio on a desperate adventure for help to the Alir's constant and deadly enemy, the gods of the Darrish empire. Can Masika, no matter how resourceful, hope to overcome the will of two sets of deities to keep her promise? Hostile armies, ancient sorcerers, and primordial monsters bar the way, but none is so formidable as . . . Masika's most elegant and proper older sister, Meritities. In the assured first book of The Wrongway Series, Pettway (author of the Misplaced Mercenaries series) conjures a sumptuous quest, following the adventures of a spunky teenager dodging obstacles, including her own family, as she leads a pair of persnickety gods back home. Sixteen year-old Masika Oburn, niece to Holy Emperor Khasek, had discovered and freed two gods of the Alir held captive and tortured for centuries: Rainn, god of Doing Things Out-of-Doors-in-Poor-Weather, and his companion Heron, a divine bird. Masika vows to return them to their realm but wasn't expecting such opposition and hostility doing it. First they must pass through High King Oldem's realm, but he refuses passage. Then Masika's elder, sociopathic sister, Meritities, has gone so far as to have Masika thrown in prison on trumped up charges, just so she can gain favor with their father, Tennat, and become Empress. Pettway crafts an amiable protagonist in Masika who, despite facing animosity at every turn, stays true to her quest and desire to do right by Rainn and Heron. The adventuring trio's next move is a gamble—climb Mount P'takkin to petition the Darrish gods, ancient enemies of the Alir, for help returning Rainn and Heron. But Meritities partners with the kingdom of Kos to thwart their endeavor. Ravenous and perpetually miserable Rainn provides humor, while Masika draws on her experience as a noble to engage in diplomacy and obstruct the political machinations against her. Fans of Pettway's Misplaced Mercenaries books will relish the reappearance of cities and some characters from those books, while fantasy fans in general will enjoy the sorcerers, politics, errant gods, and monsters that populate this playful adventure, as Masika journeys through cave-towns, riverboats, taverns, and other classic settings given new twists. This story's beating heart is a heroine who maintains her good nature no matter what the world throws at her, learning from past mistakes and getting caught up in crisp, exciting scenes of danger. Takeaway : A courageous heroine leads eccentric gods back home in this winning series starter. Comparable Titles : Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside series, Naomi Novik's Uprooted. —Booklife Review