Circles of Power (en Inglés) - Melissa Elting

They told her they were saving lives. Then they locked her underground.

Crossing the country to start a new job, Fanny stops for gas and accepts help from a stranger. One mistake. One moment. Then nothing.

She wakes in a bunker beneath an isolated barn, with no phone, no way out, and no reason to believe anyone is looking for her.

Welcome to the Circle.

Behind that barn door, a clandestine pharmaceutical operation is rewriting the rules of human experimentation. The town protects its secret. The authorities look away. And the men in charge call their cruelty progress.

Fanny is told she is special. She is told what to think, what to remember, and who she is. Every day is another test. Every kindness is another lever.

But her captors have made one calculation error: they assumed a frightened woman would remain a compliant one.

As Fanny learns the rituals of the Circle, she begins to spot the cracks in it. A hesitation. A contradiction. An ally where none should exist. And a way to make the experiment turn on its experimenters.

Circles of Power delivers claustrophobic tension, institutional corruption, and a hard-won reversal of power rather than a rescue handed to its heroine. Readers who enjoy captivity suspense, morally compromised institutions, and resilient female leads will find a story that lingers long after the final escape.

Because every circle has a breaking point.