I am writing about the entire Earth's Children series here.
Fair warning Jean M. Auel is one of my favourite authors.

In the Earth's Children series you follow Ayla (the main character) on her interesting journey through mistreatment, isolation, and misunderstanding. Ayla was raised by Neanderthals but is Homo Sapiens. Although able to speak she is raised in silence, communicating through hand gestures and posture as the Neanderthals in Auel's novels are only able to do.

We get to follow Ayla's journey as she meets other Homo Sapiens and grows older while also learning about prehistoric Earth at the same time. Ever been curious about how humans survived in ancient times and wanted to speculate on their diverse culture? Wonder how they interacted with Neanderthals? How spirituality and ritual (hello Earth MOTHER) could have affected their lives? Auel shows us all that and more. I love books that teach me something and have such a complete world built into them. I totally understand why all of her books have been lauded. Some of the facts she wrote into her books have since been disproved but at the time of publication they were lovely, archaeologically accurate, novels.

Then add in the fact this is a love story? Jondalar, Master Flintknapper, *swoon* is a worthy (but flawed) consort to our lovely Ayla, The ups and downs of their relationship had me in tears.

I cared about the characters so much when I first read the novels and still do to this day. Ayla is such a strong and worthy heroine!

Read, read, read this series! I am almost incoherent writing about the series because I love it so much.

This is the first book
in the series. It may be stone ages and the world was different. But it's a love story and a story of courage and a woman's determination to get Back up when everyone has tried to demeane her. She is the hero of the book and the story makes you want to go bake to that time to help, one of the clan takes after as if she were her own and is shunned from the other clan, by the end of this book I loved Ayla and her ability to overcome obsticules. This series goes on and the journey is up and down but the reader can follow and cheer for the successes and cry over the disappointments

The Clan of the Cave Bear is a historical novel by Jean M. Auel about prehistoric times. It is the first book in the Earth's Children book series which speculates on the possibilities of interactions between Neanderthal and modern Cro-Magnon humans.

Ok if you pick up the first book of the series you will need to read the next 5 books for sure and they will become your unable to put down books. I would be up all night reading it but needing to work the next day at 6 am. It is worth the read and great writing. I remember on the bus crying because something happened in the books.