Every trope we publish for Contemporary — Fake Dating Romance, ranked by reader-demand mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-08-24. 11,099 trope mentions counted in the lane in that window. Pick one for the full readout.
Changing the genre and pressing Check demand reloads the trope list for that lane. 3,589 trope-and-lane readouts are published today.
| # | Trope | Mentions | Share of lane | Direction | Tagged titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fake Dating / Fake Relationship | 1,437 | 12.95% | Holding steady | 92 |
| 2 | Forced Proximity | 646 | 5.82% | Holding steady | 758 |
| 3 | Slow Burn | 485 | 4.37% | Rising | 296 |
| 4 | Found Family | 482 | 4.34% | Rising | 345 |
| 5 | Marriage of Convenience | 285 | 2.57% | Holding steady | 179 |
| 6 | Enemies to Lovers | 255 | 2.30% | Rising | 383 |
| 7 | Friends to Lovers | 235 | 2.12% | Cooling | 84 |
| 8 | Second Chance | 213 | 1.92% | Cooling | 309 |
| 9 | Sports Romance | 180 | 1.62% | Cooling | 91 |
| 10 | Banter | 178 | 1.60% | Holding steady | 6,178 |
| 11 | Age Gap | 120 | 1.08% | Not called | — |
| 12 | Opposites Attract | 120 | 1.08% | Rising | 122 |
| 13 | Small Town | 101 | 0.91% | Rising | 199 |
| 14 | Character Growth | 89 | 0.80% | Rising | 9 |
| 15 | Reverse Harem / Why Choose | 88 | 0.79% | Holding steady | 88 |
| 16 | Grumpy Sunshine | 69 | 0.62% | Rising | 227 |
| 17 | Ensemble Cast | 68 | 0.61% | Rising | — |
| 18 | Grumpy MMC | 66 | 0.59% | Not called | 181 |
| 19 | He Falls First | 62 | 0.56% | Cooling | 52 |
| 20 | Mafia Romance | 60 | 0.54% | Holding steady | 59 |
| 21 | Protective Hero | 59 | 0.53% | Cooling | 187 |
| 22 | Emotional Depth | 54 | 0.49% | Rising | 29 |
| 23 | Single Parent | 51 | 0.46% | Not called | 154 |
| 24 | Boss / Employee | 50 | 0.45% | Holding steady | 160 |
| 25 | Rom Com | 49 | 0.44% | Cooling | 2 |
| 26 | Redemption Arc | 46 | 0.41% | Holding steady | 47 |
| 27 | Contemporary Romance | 45 | 0.41% | Not called | — |
| 28 | Paranormal Romance | 41 | 0.37% | Not called | 109 |
| 29 | Miscommunication | 39 | 0.35% | Holding steady | 7,215 |
| 30 | Revenge | 36 | 0.32% | Cooling | 1,378 |
| 31 | Trauma Recovery | 35 | 0.32% | Holding steady | 17 |
| 32 | Humor | 32 | 0.29% | Not called | 6 |
| 33 | Romance | 32 | 0.29% | Not called | 1 |
| 34 | Spicy Romance | 31 | 0.28% | Not called | — |
| 35 | Sweet Romance | 31 | 0.28% | Holding steady | 8 |
| 36 | Possessive Hero | 30 | 0.27% | Not called | 98 |
| 37 | Fated Mates | 29 | 0.26% | Not called | 215 |
| 38 | Romantic Comedy | 29 | 0.26% | Not called | 7 |
| 39 | Character Driven | 29 | 0.26% | Not called | — |
| 40 | Brother's Best Friend | 28 | 0.25% | Not called | 65 |
| 41 | Coming Of Age | 28 | 0.25% | Not called | 4 |
| 42 | Dark Romance (as trope) | 27 | 0.24% | Not called | 170 |
| 43 | Meet Cute | 26 | 0.23% | Not called | 18 |
| 44 | Self Discovery | 26 | 0.23% | Not called | 12 |
| 45 | Page Turner | 25 | 0.23% | Not called | 2 |
Direction is the change in each trope’s share of the lane between the last 12 weeks and the 12 before — never a raw weekly move. “Not called” means the two bands hold fewer than 30 mentions between them and we will not pretend otherwise. Tagged titles are counted across our whole registry, not just this lane.