"The Admirer" by Anna Jane, summary Automatic translate

This 2019 book is a romantic psychological thriller where love is intertwined with dark family secrets and criminal intrigue. The author successfully creates a thick atmosphere of suspense, making you question the reality of what’s happening to the main character. The novel won the 2019 LiveLib Readers’ Choice Award in the Young Adult category.

Flower paranoia

Angelina Lanskaya is a modest psychology student. She lives alone while her mother vacations at the seaside. Every morning, she finds an even number of flowers at her door. The luxurious bouquets always come with a card depicting a girl standing on the edge of a precipice. At first, Angelina believes the secret giver is a romantic. Her friend, Alisa, also supports this theory. Gradually, the terrifying ritual drives Angelina insane. The apartment turns into a suffocating greenhouse of wilting bouquets. She suffers from panic attacks and terrifying childhood nightmares about a white monster in the closet. She even sleeps with a box cutter in her hand, trying to ambush her pursuer.

Soon, Angelina meets the bright, cheerful Stas on the subway. They begin chatting, and Stas teaches her how to skateboard, seeming like the perfect guy. Meanwhile, local hooligans attack Angelina on the street. A tall man in a black hoodie, holding a gun, saves her. He reveals his name to be Matvey Veselov. He claims to be the heir to a large corporation and, thus, the flower giver. Matvey behaves rudely and cynically, declaring his insane passion for Angelina. He had previously saved Angelina from a drunken advance at a nightclub, carrying her home in his arms. A painful, irresistible attraction develops between them.

Angelina is torn between the calm Stas and the gloomy Matvey. Her new acquaintance suddenly dumps her, sending a cold farewell message. Matvey explains his rival’s actions. It turns out Stas was blatantly lying and is now forever out of the picture. Angelina falls completely in love with Matvey. He showers her with expensive things and takes her on a private jet to the Kola Peninsula to see the Northern Lights. With him by her side, Angelina begins painting again. She hadn’t picked up a brush for years after failing to enter art school.

Secrets of the past

At the same time, Matvey hides a dark secret from his lover. He secretly believes Angelina killed his younger brother, Andrei, who jumped from the roof of a high-rise building due to unrequited feelings. His brother’s death devastated the Veselov family: his father died of a heart attack, and his mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Seeking revenge, Veselov joined the elite underground club "Legion." The members of the group — daimons — wear white masks adorned with bloody tears and enjoy cruel games. They force ordinary people to make immoral choices. These decisions ruin lives, and the daimons place huge bets on them.

The creator of "Legion" is the charismatic and insane artist Gabriel. Matvey is convinced that Angelina drove Andrey to suicide as part of a deadly mission from the club. Gabriel convinces his comrade that the girl has a rare mental disorder. Supposedly, her second hidden personality is the heartless Rose, who committed the crime. Veselov planned to make the killer fall in love with him and then take revenge. The plan failed — the young man himself fell prey to his own strong emotions and was unable to harm the girl.

Meanwhile, Angelina accidentally discovers old documents in the apartment. She is horrified to discover that she is adopted. She was adopted at the age of seven after the Lanskys’ real daughter died of a serious illness. Her adoptive mother tearfully confesses the truth. It turns out that Angelina’s birth family burned down in a terrible fire many years ago, and the girl herself lost her memory from the shock.

Legion Games

Soon, Angelina is kidnapped right off the street at night. She awakens bound in the Legion dungeon. A beaten Matvey is tied to an iron chair nearby. Gabriel removes his monster mask and reveals all his cards. He is Valentin, the adopted son of Angelina’s biological parents. The couple once had twin girls: Lilia (Angelina’s real name) and Rosa. Valentin grew up a sadist, cruelly killing defenseless animals and frightening Lilia at night, wearing a homemade monster mask.

A little girl told her parents about his atrocities. They decided to send their adopted son back to the orphanage. That night, Valentin set the house on fire, locked Lilia in a room, and rescued Rosa. A neighbor boy miraculously pulled Lilia from the fire. This brave hero turned out to be young Matvey. Valentin raised Rosa, instilling in her his distorted view of the world. It was Rosa who became a member of the "Legion" and drove Andrei Veselov to suicide.

Gabriel deliberately pitted Matvey and Lilia-Angelina against each other for the sake of perverse amusement. He cruelly deceived Matvey, inventing a story about split personalities. There, in the dungeon, Gabriel forces Stas to make a choice. The programmer also turns out to be one of the club’s daimons. Stas must decide which of the two bound captives will die: his friend Ella or Alisa, Angelina’s best friend. The fate is written on the girls’ backs.

Stas makes the wrong choice, giving in to panic. Ella is brutally stabbed to death by Gabriel’s assistant. Then the mad artist demands that Angelina and Matvey decide which of them will sacrifice themselves for the other. Suddenly, Rosa appears from a secret passage. She overheard Gabriel’s lengthy confession and learned that he was the one who killed their parents and her beloved fiancé, Sasha. Mad with pain and rage, Rosa spills solvent and sets fire to Gabriel’s studio, along with all his cursed paintings.

A massive fire breaks out. Angelina frees Matvey and Alisa with the help of a pair of dropped scissors. The heroes attempt to escape, but Konstantin blocks their path. Matvey’s driver turns out to be a traitor and secretly Gabriel’s henchman. In the ensuing fight, Konstantin stabs Matvey in the side. Angelina desperately stabs the driver in the neck. Meanwhile, the burning second-floor balcony collapses, claiming the lives of Gabriel and Rosa, who are locked in a deadly fight.

Konstantin tries to finish off Matvey and Angelina. He is shot dead by a grief-stricken Stas, who has taken the gun. Matvey miraculously survives a major operation and massive blood loss. Stas receives a lenient sentence for exceeding the limits of self-defense and disappears forever. After recovering from their injuries, Angelina and Matvey marry.

Twelve years later, they are happily raising a daughter, Rosa, and a son, Andrey, named after their deceased relatives. Angelina has become a successful artist and found her calling. Her large earnings from the sale of her paintings go to a foundation that helps sick children. The couple overcame their past fears and found the long-awaited light in their love.