I'm with Stupid by Elaine Szewczyk

From the Publisher

A hilarious tale of girl meets boy, girl falls in lust, girl discovers boy is not playing with a full deck...

When Kas meets William while on safari in South Africa he seems perfect-a gorgeous park ranger, both kind and brave (he saved the tour from certain death by water buffalo). Her two best friends, Max, an endlessly scheming personal trainer, and Libby, a jobless bombshell, would like to get their hands on William...but he's only interested in Kas, an editorial assistant at a struggling New York literary agency who thinks William is out of her league. The two have a fling, and Kas returns home to New York wondering if she'll hear from William again. So when he finally sends an email, she's delighted.

Until she opens it.

The email is not quite the love missive Kas expected. Did she misjudge William? A miscommunication ensues, triggering a rapid-fire series of comic developments that, within days, bring William to New York, now under the impression that Kas has offered him a place to live. As he unveils his big plan to take Manhattan by storm and make his fortune, Kas finally recognizes how limited William's intellectual capabilities are: He makes Kevin Federline look like Albert Einstein.

Readers are along for the outrageous ride as Kas copes with her new roommate's eccentricities, including a preoccupation with the Psychic Friends Network and a passion for collecting Big Apple-themed souvenirs, and the realization that her dream man is a comic nightmare.

"Elaine Szewczyk is smart and funny, and knows that New York bars and African safaris have something important in common: When it comes to dating, it's a jungle out there. Ifyou savor Sophie Kinsella or Lauren Weisberger, you'll want to add her to your reading list."—-Chris Bohjalian, author of MIDWIVES, THE DOUBLE BIND, and SKELETONS AT THE FEAST

"Spirited, irreverent, bilious, and above all funny, Elaine Szewczyk's bitter cocktail provides a much-needed antidote for the chick-lit genre..."—-Adam Langer, author of Ellington Boulevard, Crossing California, and The Washington Story

Publishers Weekly

Szewczyk's entertaining debut novel chronicles a one-night stand gone wrong. Kas Sienkiewicz and her buddy Libby are whisked away by their rich layabout friend, Max, on a luxurious South African vacation. At the posh resort, Kas catches the attention of hunky ranger William Johnson. Nursing a wounded ego after learning that her ex was cheating on her (and his fiancée), Kas heeds her friends' urgings and has a fling with William. When he later turns up in New York, the well-meaning if culturally backward William convinces Kas to take him in, and he gets to work on an ill-fated book. Scenes involving Kas's Polish immigrant parents and their reactions to the new presence in Kas's life are stellar. Subplots involving an arrogant and wealthy tube sock heir and Max's ongoing revenge campaign against Kas's ex simmer, sometimes hilariously, and Szewczyk, an editor at Kirkus Reviews, keeps the story moving briskly with breezy prose, witty one-liners and goofball antics. (July)

Lisa Davis-Craig - Library Journal

In Szewczyk's (fiction editor, Kirkus Reviews) first novel, recently dumped New York literary agent Kas is comforted by her boisterous buddy Max, who outrageously pranks her ex and takes Kas and their mellow friend Libby on vacation at a luxurious South African resort. There, the three lust after superlatively handsome ranger William. Fired for his one-night stand with Kas, William moves to New York convinced he can write a book on the politics of Monaco-though even his emails are gibberish. Kas imagines her dream man to be more like the promising author whose manuscript she found in the slush pile than brainless William, but she lets him move in anyway. Although the ending is abrupt, refreshingly, no great moment of discovery wraps the book up too neatly, just a celebration of Kas's family and friends in all their joyous, urban craziness. Szewczyk's cheerfully caustic sense of humor is a delight, making up for the tendency of her secondary characters-including Kas's Polish mother and Manuel, another guest at the resort-to edge into manic caricatures. Recommended for all popular fiction collections.

Kirkus Reviews

A magical one-night stand with a strapping South African wildlife ranger has unexpected consequences in this screwball rom-com with a winningly sardonic heroine. Still smarting from a humiliating Valentine's Day breakup with lying louse Richard, literary agency assistant Kas Sienkiewicz has just about had it with guys when she agrees to join pals Max and Libby on a deluxe African safari courtesy of Max's rich father. Her resolve is tested mightily when she sets eyes on the clock-stopping vision of hotness who just happens to be their guide at the Akuji Game Reserve. Blue-eyed, 6'4" William is gracious, friendly and, to the startled delight of self-deprecating Kas, actually seems to fancy her. On their last night at the reserve, goaded by Max and Libby, she invites William up to her chalet for an evening she hopes at the very least will be a fine memory. Back home in Manhattan, she is stunned to receive a semi-literate email from William; he's lost his job for sleeping with Kas and is now headed to New York to seek his fortune. Also, he loves her and wants to stay with her. Before she has time to sort out this new turn of events, William has arrived. The cute ranger uniform has been replaced by a series of brightly colored track suits and a tasseled fez he claims helps "inspire" him to work on his lifelong dream: a nonfiction treatise on the political situation in Monaco. The fact that he can barely spell matters not to confident William, prompting Kas to wonder if he is a moron, or just an innocent abroad. Either way, around the time he installs a waterbed in her tiny apartment she realizes that she must find a way to get him out. Meanwhile, she finds herself intrigued by a new clientwhose witty novel is right up her alley. Often laugh-out-loud funny, Kirkus editor Szewczyk's well-observed debut is a quirky, perverse take on dating that easily rises above the singleton genre competition.

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