My favorite site (other than Fresh Fiction) is the Cheezburger page. I'm allergic to cats, but I love them anyhow. I make do with feeding the neighborhood kitties.
Technically, a historical novel is one which was written by someone who was not alive during the period she (or he) is writing about. They don't remember the time period; they have to do research on it to be able to write the book. This makes Georgette Heyer's Regency romances historical fiction, but Jane Austen's books, written during the Regency period, fiction.
I found this out when I researched a module on historical fiction for my class. I remember when one of my students, who are graduate students, wanted to read a book set in the Sixties as historical fiction. I thought to myself, that's not historical! but to her, I guess it was. I believe I told my students it had to be WW II or before to count as historical.