Its not at all like LOTR, and it holds up extremely well.

I heard that her publishers more or less forced her to write a YA fantasy series, and she somewhat resented that so turned it a bit on its head. They wanted the typical sappy romantic shallow sort of story, but she went way deeper than that as she's wont to do.

Its the story of a young wizard attempting to get his hold on the discipline when, you guessed it, things go awry. It delves into a lot deeper topics too of course throughout the course of the series, like pain, loss, belonging, trust etc.

It has her signature poignant prose and she took great care in crafting her world and the magic system.

You can tell its for a younger audience but I still enjoy it. Its definitely worth the read.