"Your Heart Will Be Broken" by Anna Jane, summary Automatic translate

"Your Heart Will Be Broken: Book 1" is a romantic novel by Anna Jane, published in 2022. It is the first part of a two-part series about high school love, bullying, and growing up, written in a style that has earned the author over 22 million online reads.

New school, new enemies

Seventeen-year-old Polina Tumanova moves to another city with her mother and stepfather, Andrey, a cold, calculating man who has taken a new job. The move comes at the most inopportune moment — at the beginning of her senior year. Polina leaves behind her friend Ira, her grandmother, and even her cat, Zaychik, whom her stepfather refused to take. From the start, she plans to study for a year and return to her hometown to attend university.

On her very first day at the elite school, Polina meets two classmates, Dilara and Milana, and learns about Dima Bars, nicknamed Bars: the most dangerous boy in school, feared by everyone and never addressed by name. Remarkably, the day before, she had seen him on the balcony of the building across the street — half-naked, with a tattoo on his arm — and had inadvertently filmed him. That same evening, they clashed at the trash can over an abandoned kitten: both wanted to adopt it. Bars ended up taking the kitten home and naming it Obed.

A forced deal

The school’s local "queen," Lika Malinovskaya, thought Polina had her eye on her boyfriend, Yegor Vlasov, although in reality, it was he who was hitting on the new girl. One evening, Lika and four of her friends corner Polina between the school building and some bushes, spill coffee on her, hit her, and film her. At that moment, Bars appears. He chases the girls away with a calm voice alone, wipes the blood from Polina’s split lip, and declares her his girlfriend — right in front of everyone.

This isn’t romance, but a calculation on both sides. Bars protects Polina from bullying, and in return, she must obey his rules — be his tutor, carry out his orders, and maintain the cover story of their relationship. Polina realizes she has no choice: the vice principal’s mother, Malinovskaya, is essentially covering for her daughter, and there’s no one to complain to.

Two lonelinesses

Gradually, both characters reveal their true colors. Bars — Dima Barsov — lives alone. His mother is dead, and his father, Vladimir Speransky, an influential businessman and parliamentarian, doesn’t acknowledge his son publicly and periodically beats him when they meet. Due to his involvement in a brawl, Dima was transferred to a new school, where the only person who treats him like a human being is his homeroom teacher, Olga Vladimirovna. He takes on difficult part-time jobs — as a loader at a hypermarket opening — and keeps his dog, Lord, and a rescued kitten at home.

Polina watches Bars from her window — their houses are fifteen meters apart. A strange correspondence begins between them, written on sheets of paper they stick to the windows: she writes, "Give me the cat, you blockhead!" and he replies, "Don’t cry." At school, their forced "pretense" begins to yield unexpected results: Polina stops being the victim, and Bars increasingly finds himself thinking about her.

Conflict with Yesin and a visit from his father

The situation escalates when Yesin, a classmate, begins to humiliate Polina — pushing her, dousing her with water from a dirty bucket, and insulting her. Bars, seeing the video of the incident, loses control and hits Yesin. The scandal escalates to the principal’s office: Speransky, the father, arrives in the office, summoned as the official parent. Polina, despite her fear, attends the hearing herself, shows the video evidence of Yesin’s guilt, and publicly calls Bars her boyfriend — no longer on his orders, but out of her own free will.

After everyone leaves, Speransky remains alone with his son and beats him — silently, methodically, knowing just where to hit to leave no marks. Bars endures this. The only thing that softens the father is the presence of Polina, who, he says, reminds him of Dima’s mother.

Parallel plot

In parallel, the storyline of Lime develops — a blond man with an unpleasant gaze, who had been watching Polina since the school gates on her first day. His father — the same Andrey, Polina’s stepfather — forgot his own daughter Sasha’s birthday, but drove a stranger to school and gave her money. Lime, filled with resentment, decides to make Polina’s life miserable — not because she’s done anything wrong, but because she’s a convenient target for his anger at her father.

Between hostility and attraction

By the end of the first book, both characters feel an increasingly strong attraction to each other, though neither is ready to admit it. Bars is angry with himself for thinking about her lips and wanting to hold her hand. Polina dreams of them kissing and wakes up with burning cheeks. They remain within the bounds of their agreement — but the line between play and true love grows ever thinner.