Look at horsepower, torque, and weight. As a beginner, you want to keep them all relatively low. A lot of weight, especially for a woman that’s 5’2″, will make learning really hard. I was helping a friend of mine practice in a parking lot after her MSF course and she dropped my Ninja 250R at a standstill because the weight got the best of her. She’s 5’4″.
Too much horsepower and torque FOR THE WEIGHT of the bike is also bad because it will be very hard to learn to be subtle and precise with the throttle at first. Look at horsepower-per-pound (power-to-weight) as a good indicator of how ridiculous a bike might be. For instance, my 600cc GSX-R600, my track bike, makes 114hp at the rear wheel. It weighs 393 lbs sopping wet. That’s a whopping 0.29 hp/lb with a 600cc engine. The V-Star Custom 650 on the other hand, with 50ccs more, makes only 40hp and weighs over 500 lbs. That’s a power-to-weight ratio of only 0.07 hp/lb. The Ninja 250R, a 250cc bike has a larger power-to-weight ratio at 0.08. So yes, the V-Star 650 is a perfectly reasonable beginner bike for you.
However, I would be worried about your lady’s ability to cope with 500+ lbs of bike. Once a person learns how to ride, not being able to put their feet all the way down (i.e., being on their toes when sitting on the bike) isn’t a big problem, nor is lots of weight. For a newbie, however, both of those things can cause a drop very easily even with a not-so-heavy bike, like they did for my friend.