In the second installment of the Uncommon Bond series, Hammer to Fall by William E Noland, Eric and Lotte find themselves immersed in another terrifying journey. Their history goes far beyond mere acquaintanceship, as they were once classmates, friends, and even lovers. Their lives changed forever when they discovered that Lotte's mirror served as a portal to a nightmarish realm. Despite the dangers they faced, Eric and Lotte managed to survive, albeit not unscathed. They eventually went their separate ways, with their communication dwindling over the years. However, Lotte reappears in Eric's life, bringing chaos and destruction along with her. A sinister netherworld breaches the divide between dimensions, sucking them in with an unleashing of deadly creatures and promising catastrophe.

Hammer to Fall by William E Noland starts off in 593 BC, in Etruria, the heart of ancient Italy, as an introduction to a girl named Rika. Rika's story grows in a tandem with Eric and Lotte and her life so that the novel advances along with the plot. It spans her coming of age through to her position as a woman and her place as a priestess in the temple. Rika's connection with the pair is hinted at but not revealed and when it is, it's intense. Eric and Lotte join together again at the very start of the book and even though they have been separated for many years it is like they never were apart, and Eric gets all the feels that Lotte has given him from the word Go. They disappear through portals that are intense and bloodcurdling even for me, and I'm a middle-aged man! In the plain world we know, time is also spent and it does not dampen the fear factor one iota. Hammer to Fall was handed to me as a teen or young adult book and that is not what I read; however, as a devout fan of horror and paranormal I took a roll of the dice and am really glad for it. Very highly recommended.

Hammer to Fall, the second book in the Uncommon Bond series by William E. Noland, is a supernatural horror and adventure thriller that revolves around old high school friends with a tumultuous past, Eric Schneider and Lotte Schwarz. In book one, Playing with Fire, Eric and Lotte meet as teenagers, and Lotte shares that she is plagued by sleep deprivation and nightmares. At a museum, they discover artifacts tied to the enigmatic Sadat Alnaar group. Later, they stumble upon a mirror and wardrobe linked to Lotte's mother's suicide. When Lotte falls asleep near the mirror, a terrifying creature emerges, wreaking havoc. Hammer to Follow picks up after years have passed and Eric and Lotte reunite after having been out of touch for some time. Lotte is as disruptive to Eric's life as ever, and a bigger, badder ancient presence is revealed while its havoc evolves in a timeline of the past, and catapults Eric and Lotte into another dangerous realm once more.

As much as I have grown to love Eric and Lotte, I have to admit that I had the most fun back in the 7th century BC in the Delphian world of the High Priestess Rika, with its wagons and flotillas and that pesky box. William E. Noland does not rob readers of Hammer to Fall of their time and as the two storylines advance they do so mostly as immediate alternating parts. The beauty of this is it keeps the pace moving and spares us from having to flip back several chapters to remind us of what transpired in the other timeline. The relationship between Eric and Lotte is nearly as big a plot point as the possibility of them landing on America's Most Wanted, and Eric's impossible damned-if-I-do situation plagues him with the veracity of creatures in an ashy mist. “I hate you, Lotte Schwarz. I hate you, and I love you, and I hate you, and I love you.” Overall, this is an excellent sequel that is vividly descriptive and wholly engrossing, and I look forward to following the duo again in book three, From the Beginning.