Blinded by the Brass Ring

Blinded by the Brass Ring, Patricia Scarlett's debut novel in the Jewelle Joseph Series, centres on the professional and personal life of stylish and ambitious Jewelle Joseph (JJ to her friends), an Afro-Canadian international television sales and distribution executive who works for TV3, a small TV channel with a big reputation.

Layoff rumours cast a pall over TV3. If the drop in morale wasn?t enough, Jewelle is also dealing with the demands of her job and managing the unbridled antagonism of newcomer Chantal Mercier, a fellow international sales and distribution executive. Jewelle has the perfect opportunity to make her move into senior management through the newly created sales and distribution spin-off company. It will mean a significant salary increase and, equally important, it will allow her to reign in and over her rival, Chantal. But Chantal's got her eye on the VP of sales position too. The competition between these two ambitious women as they reach for the brass ring moves from the glitzy office towers of downtown Toronto to the glamorous world of the international television market in Cannes.

While navigating the shrapnel from the bitter divorce of her parents?Radcliff, her philandering father, and Adele, her traditional and controlling Jamaican mother who live in Montreal?, Jewelle tries to balance her doubts about her boyfriend Anthony Brown, who Jewelle perceives as lacking in ambition, and the hot and heavy pursuit of her by Johann Eriksson, a dashing and successful Swedish television executive. Her posse's honesty and support keep her grounded.