Every trope we publish for Contemporary — Workplace Romance, ranked by reader-demand mentions counted over the 28 weeks to 2026-08-24. 16,677 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 | Boss / Employee | 952 | 5.71% | Cooling | 160 |
| 2 | Forced Proximity | 830 | 4.98% | Cooling | 758 |
| 3 | Found Family | 727 | 4.36% | Rising | 345 |
| 4 | Slow Burn | 716 | 4.29% | Holding steady | 296 |
| 5 | Enemies to Lovers | 470 | 2.82% | Rising | 383 |
| 6 | Second Chance | 435 | 2.61% | Cooling | 309 |
| 7 | Age Gap | 312 | 1.87% | Holding steady | — |
| 8 | Forbidden Romance | 299 | 1.79% | Cooling | 338 |
| 9 | Banter | 294 | 1.76% | Holding steady | 6,178 |
| 10 | Single Parent | 208 | 1.25% | Cooling | 154 |
| 11 | Reverse Harem / Why Choose | 199 | 1.19% | Cooling | 88 |
| 12 | Sports Romance | 192 | 1.15% | Cooling | 91 |
| 13 | Fake Dating / Fake Relationship | 192 | 1.15% | Rising | 92 |
| 14 | Grumpy Sunshine | 165 | 0.99% | Cooling | 227 |
| 15 | Protective Hero | 129 | 0.77% | Holding steady | 187 |
| 16 | Friends to Lovers | 122 | 0.73% | Holding steady | 84 |
| 17 | Grumpy MMC | 119 | 0.71% | Rising | 181 |
| 18 | Character Growth | 114 | 0.68% | Rising | 9 |
| 19 | Opposites Attract | 110 | 0.66% | Rising | 122 |
| 20 | He Falls First | 105 | 0.63% | Cooling | 52 |
| 21 | Omegaverse | 100 | 0.60% | Cooling | 610 |
| 22 | Secret Baby | 98 | 0.59% | Cooling | 48 |
| 23 | Marriage of Convenience | 95 | 0.57% | Rising | 179 |
| 24 | Single Parent Romance | 91 | 0.55% | Holding steady | 1 |
| 25 | Dark Romance (as trope) | 85 | 0.51% | Rising | 170 |
| 26 | Redemption Arc | 84 | 0.50% | Cooling | 47 |
| 27 | Possessive Hero | 76 | 0.46% | Rising | 98 |
| 28 | Emotional Depth | 75 | 0.45% | Rising | 29 |
| 29 | Ensemble Cast | 73 | 0.44% | Rising | — |
| 30 | Instalove | 72 | 0.43% | Rising | 1,186 |
| 31 | Spicy Romance | 72 | 0.43% | Rising | — |
| 32 | Trauma Recovery | 65 | 0.39% | Rising | 17 |
| 33 | Mafia Romance | 65 | 0.39% | Not called | 59 |
| 34 | Miscommunication | 63 | 0.38% | Holding steady | 7,215 |
| 35 | Secret/Hidden Identity | 62 | 0.37% | Cooling | 127 |
| 36 | Fated Mates | 53 | 0.32% | Cooling | 215 |
| 37 | Small Town | 51 | 0.31% | Not called | 199 |
| 38 | Revenge | 50 | 0.30% | Cooling | 1,378 |
| 39 | Romance | 48 | 0.29% | Not called | 1 |
| 40 | Plot Twists | 47 | 0.28% | Rising | 38 |
| 41 | Secret Relationship | 45 | 0.27% | Not called | 21 |
| 42 | Contemporary Romance | 45 | 0.27% | Rising | — |
| 43 | Mystery / Suspense Element | 43 | 0.26% | Not called | 56 |
| 44 | Character Driven | 43 | 0.26% | Holding steady | — |
| 45 | Angst | 42 | 0.25% | Cooling | 3,262 |
| 46 | Paranormal Romance | 42 | 0.25% | Not called | 109 |
| 47 | Series Continuation | 41 | 0.25% | Rising | 3 |
| 48 | One Night Stand | 38 | 0.23% | Cooling | 55 |
| 49 | Steamy Romance | 38 | 0.23% | Cooling | 6 |
| 50 | Brother's Best Friend | 38 | 0.23% | Holding steady | 65 |
| 51 | Humor | 38 | 0.23% | Not called | 6 |
| 52 | Strong FMC | 38 | 0.23% | Not called | 71 |
| 53 | Protective MMC | 37 | 0.22% | Cooling | 298 |
| 54 | Groveling | 36 | 0.22% | Not called | 340 |
| 55 | Page Turner | 36 | 0.22% | Holding steady | 2 |
| 56 | Self Discovery | 34 | 0.20% | Not called | 12 |
| 57 | Happy Ending | 34 | 0.20% | Not called | 3 |
| 58 | Dual POV | 34 | 0.20% | Not called | 19 |
| 59 | Sweet Romance | 34 | 0.20% | Not called | 8 |
| 60 | Obsessive Love | 34 | 0.20% | Not called | 22 |
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.