Fans of home-improvement TV shows know Nicole Curtis as the hands-on blonde of Rehab Addict. But her road to becoming a design and media star has been paved with struggles and setbacks along with successes, chronicled in her new book: Better Than New: Lessons I’ve Learned From Saving Old Homes (And How They Saved Me) (Artisan).

In eight chapters, each focused on a house, starting with her first Florida fixer-upper, the Detroit native shares her unvarnished personal journey – from Hooters waitress to struggling single mum, through relationships good and bad – to her complicated life today.