The Ex-Perimento

Happy release week to Maria J. Morillo’s debut novel, The Ex-Perimento! This romance has been on my radar for many months, and I was so excited to get my hands on it. Set in Caracas, Venezuela, it follows Maria Antonieta (Marianto), a lifestyle columnist with her whole life planned out down to the letter. But now that her longterm boyfriend is done with his medical degree, she’s expecting a proposal… and gets dumped instead. She then loses her job and any hope she had of finally getting a promotion. Her last chance is to somehow get her ex back, write an article about it, and thus get her job back. Marianto develops an “ex-perimento” list, but it’s not going well. Now in a temporary job as an assistant to her favorite singer, Simón, on a televised singing competition, Marianto gets help from the rockstar himself. But will he help her get her ex back, or will he ultimately prove to be the better match?

What I Liked:

• Deconstructing a type-A planner. I really liked Marianto and all her lists, plans, and timelines. While I’m not quite as rigid as her, a big part of me could relate to her desire for control and meeting goals. This planning is part of what fuels Alejandro dumping her, and it plays a major role in Marianto’s narrative arc in overcoming past issues, rediscovering herself, and learning to let love in even if it looks a little messier.
• Music! Marianto’s favorite band is the up-and-coming rock quartet from Colombia, Caballo de Troya. The singer, Simón, is appearing on a new singing competition, and in a need for a temporary job, Marianto ends up working as his assistant. I loved seeing them get to know each other, as fan and rockstar first, but quickly as co-workers then friends. Not much detail is given into the music side, sadly, but I still enjoyed this portrayal of a relatively new rock band and fame.
• Falling for the coach. Marianto is trying to win back her ex, and Simón is acting as her coach for her experiments. Spoiler: His coaching works pretty well! Also a spoiler: Simón proves to be much more worthy of Marianto’s love than Alejandro. But Marianto first needs to fully get over Alejandro, and that takes time. Simón and Marianto get a very slow burn as they become friends and then something a little bit more starts to blossom.
• Venezuela setting. This might be the first book I’ve read that’s set in Venezuela, and I loved getting to know the country, and specifically Caracas, here. I’d love to visit! I’m in Peru now, so I’m excited to keep reading more South American literature before hopefully traveling to these countries.

What Didn’t Work for Me:

• More women’s fiction than romance. While I loved this story overall, my expectations weren’t entirely aligned with what it turned out to be. Most of this book is focused on Marianto trying to get her ex, Alejandro, back through a series of experiments, and her overall arc to better understanding herself. She doesn’t even meet her new love interest until about 25%, and from there it’s still a long way before she gets over her ex. The romance with Simón doesn’t really even start until after the halfway mark. This book is excellent as women’s fiction, but didn’t quite reach all the romance beats that I was hoping for.

Final Thoughts

The Ex-Perimento is a heart-warming novel about losing love, losing yourself, and putting back the pieces again. Marianto is a character you’ll root for, and as she slowly moves on from Alejandro, Simón is right there to prove all her misconceptions wrong. This was a winning debut, and I’m excited to read more from Maria J. Morillo.

Special thanks to the publishers at Penguin Random House, Berkley, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy The Ex-Perimento here – it’s available as a paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

The Ex-Perimento by Maria J. Morillo
Audience	Adult
Genre	Contemporary Romance; Women’s Fiction
Setting	Venezuela
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	February 17, 2026
Publisher	Berkley

Official Summary

A woman enlists the help of her favorite musician to win her ex-boyfriend back in this sparkling romantic comedy set in Venezuela by debut author Maria J. Morillo.

Maria “Marianto” Camacho is a planner. At twenty-seven, she has her life perfectly mapped out. Her long-term boyfriend, Alejandro, is perfect on paper, and she’s expecting a proposal any day now. She has a stable job as a lifestyle columnist at Ellas, one of Latin America’s biggest digital magazines. Her future is set; she’s sure of it.

Until everything falls apart overnight: Marianto loses her boyfriend and her job. But she’s determined to get them both back with an idea that is either delusional or ingenious—a juicy new article for Ellas that documents a series of romantic experiments to get her ex back. Thus begins The Ex-Perimento. With her bank account dwindling, however, Marianto lands a temporary gig on Venezuela’s hottest new singing competition show. Her job? Personal assistant to Simón Arreaza, the lead singer of her favorite indie band.

It’s only her second day on the job when Simón discovers Marianto’s list of romantic experiments, striking her ideas and replacing them with his own better ones. Out of desperation, she offers a proposition: Help her win back Alejandro, and she’ll give Simón’s band a profile in the magazine once she returns to Ellas. But between the close quarters on set and the blurred lines of a budding friendship, Marianto and Simón find themselves irresistibly drawn to each other, caught in a whirlwind of unexpected romance.