Castaway by Aleya Aduruvil is a new adult fantasy romance, focused around a young woman learning of her shifter blood line and navigating the problems that come with it. Overall I enjoyed the plot and was invested in finding out what happened. The characters were fun, although I don't feel like we got to know them as well as we might have been able to. I think a lot of the main character's internal monologue that we were privy to had the effect of telling the reader rather than showing them. Instead of learning about the motivations of characters through their actions or more nuanced descriptions, we were simply told. A lot of the main characters background was also missing - why did she grow up outside of her pack? Perhaps this will be revealed further in the series, along with background on the shifter magic. All in all, Castaway was a good read that could have benefitted from some more detailed descriptions and background information. ( )