Tallbud recommended the Bersa Thunder. Personally, I like the thunder and if I wanted something easy to conceal and carry, I'd probably go for one. I had one for my wife. She's 5'7" probably 150ish. She couldn't stand the bersa. It was her first handgun to fire and she felt like it had too much muzzle flip. Probably due to the really small grips. We shot a friend's 4" Ruger GP101 357mag and loaded it with everything from mild 38's to some +p+ 357's and she absolutely loved it. She's now a proud owner of a Taurus Tracker 357. Concealment was not an issue in our case. Just a bedside gun.

Recoil is very subjective and even if it's going to be a gift, I'd wait until she had a chance to try a few different handguns out before buying anything. Also might want to look into something with Crimson Trace Laser Grips. It's alot easier to put the red dot on the target than trying to line up the sights in a dark hallway.