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The Marriage of Convenience Trope, by Demand Signals

Written 21 August 2026 · Figures counted 4 November 2026 · Source: Tropesmith demand-signal engine

How often do readers mention or praise marriage of convenience? Not by opinion — by count. Tropesmith counts demand signals: each is one specific thing a reader asked for or praised in a review, comment or post, taken from Goodreads reviews, Amazon reviews, BookTok comments and captions, Reddit posts and Amazon Q&A, and tagged by trope. The counts below are the signals that mention this trope. Here is what they say.

13,002demand signals
35%tagged underserved or novel
931from BookTok comments and captions

Counted 2026-11-04 02:40 UTC. A demand signal is one specific thing a reader asked for or praised in a review, comment or post, picked out by Tropesmith's classifier. One review can give several. Each signal gets a rarity tag (common, underserved or novel) from the text of that review or post alone; the classifier is never shown what is on the shelf. A tag points at where to look. It does not prove that no book answers the signal. Shares are the tagged signals divided by all signals in the same scope. How we count.

What the Marriage of Convenience trope promises

Marriage of convenience binds two leads by contract before feeling ever enters the picture: a green card, an inheritance, a title, a business deal, a scandal to bury. The arrangement forces proximity and intimacy on a schedule, and the romance grows in the gap between the paperwork and what they actually start to want.

It is a proximity-engine trope with a built-in clock. It layers cleanly onto enemies-to-lovers and forbidden romance. 35% of the demand signals that mention marriage of convenience are tagged underserved or novel by Tropesmith's classifier, compared with 39% across all demand signals.

How to read this

The first figure counts the demand signals that mention marriage of convenience; the second is the share Tropesmith's classifier tagged underserved or novel, to compare with 39% across all demand signals. The tag is a pointer, not a verdict on the shelf, so check the comp titles in your lane before you commit to a version of the trope.

Related tropes

Related tropes, each with its own demand signals:

63,598 demand signals31% tagged underserved or novel
133,687 demand signals33% tagged underserved or novel
21,061 demand signals39% tagged underserved or novel
77,558 demand signals36% tagged underserved or novel
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Frequently asked questions

How popular is marriage of convenience?

As counted on 4 November 2026, Tropesmith has 13,002 demand signals that mention marriage of convenience (a demand signal is one specific thing a reader asked for or praised in a review, comment or post). 35% of them are tagged underserved or novel by Tropesmith's classifier, and 931 come from BookTok comments and captions.

What is the marriage of convenience trope?

Marriage of convenience binds two leads by contract before feeling ever enters the picture: a green card, an inheritance, a title, a business deal, a scandal to bury. The arrangement forces proximity and intimacy on a schedule, and the romance grows in the gap between the paperwork and what they actually start to want.

How much of the demand for marriage of convenience is tagged underserved or novel?

Of the 13,002 demand signals that mention marriage of convenience, 4,525 (35%) are tagged underserved or novel by Tropesmith's classifier, compared with 39% across all demand signals. The tag is made from the text of each review or post alone, without a view of the shelf, so it points at where to look and does not show that no book answers the signal. To check the shelf, compare the comp titles in your lane or open a sample Map.

By the numbers

What Tropesmith has actually read

Every number we publish is counted, not estimated. This is the corpus behind it.

2,860,000+demand signals analyzed
140+demand lanes scored
5,070,000+Goodreads reviews read
113,500+from BookTok comments and captions

Counted 2026-11-05 10:15 UTC by direct query against the Tropesmith corpus. Method: how we count · how a Map is built.

Keep reading

Demand figures on this page were counted on 4 November 2026 from Tropesmith's demand-signal engine; see how we count. Part of the romance market intelligence hub.

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